Effects of indoor water sounds on intrusive noise perception and speech recognition in rooms

Abstract

While water sounds have been used for soundscape improvement, little is known about their applicability in indoor environments. In order to investigate the effects of indoor water sounds on noise perception, a simple indoor water fountain system was used to produce water sounds over three different types of indoor intrusive noise (traffic noise, higher frequency dominated noise of a chair scraping the floor above, lower frequency dominated impact noise of a man running on the floor above) and speech in a test laboratory. Intrusive noise perception (annoyance and pleasantness) and speech recognition (KS-MWL-A) were assessed with three water sound levels (40, 50, 60 dBA) at two exposure times (immediate and 50 min) of water sounds by 54 participants. Short-term exposure to indoor water sounds improved the pleasantness of intrusive noise without increasing annoyance except lower frequency dominated impact noise. The increase in exposure time to indoor water sounds did not affect intrusive noise perception and speech recognition. The water to noise ratio significantly affected annoyance and pleasantness of traffic noise only; however, the level of water sounds did not significantly affect intrusive noise perception. Indoor water sounds can be used to improve intrusive noise perception except lower frequency dominated floor impact noise with no adverse effects on speech recognition dependent upon the speech to water sound ratio.

Practical application: This simple indoor water fountain can be directly applied to small offices or rooms to improve intrusive noise perception. When the simple fountain produces water sounds in a room, pleasantness of traffic noise throughout window openings or higher frequency dominated noise such as chair scraping noise can be improved without increment of annoyance and decrement of speech recognition. Short-term exposure to indoor water sounds is effective to increase pleasantness of the intrusive noises.

Keywords

Indoor water sounds noise perception traffic noise floor impact noise intrusive noise speech recognition

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Mador

Water, biophilic design and the built environment. In: Kellert

Heerwagen

Mador

(eds). Biophilic design: the theory, science and practice of bringing buildings to life, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2008, pp. 43–58.

White

Smith

Humphryes

et al.

Blue space: the importance of water for preference, affect, and restorativeness ratings of natural and built scenes. J Environ Psychol 2010; 30: 482–493.

Čákyová K and Vranayová Z. The inclusion of a water feature to the interior and its impact on internal microclimate. In: Advances and trends in engineering sciences and technologies II: proceedings of the 2nd international conference on engineering sciences and technologies, High Tatras Mountains, Tatranské Matliare, Slovak Republic, 29 June–1 July 2016, p. 365. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Alvarsson

Wiens

Nilsson

. Stress recovery during exposure to nature sound and environmental noise. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2010; 7: 1036–1046.

Pradhan P. The role of water as a restorative component in small urban spaces. Department of Landscape Architecture. Alnarp, Sweden: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 2012.

Skoda S, Steffens J and Becker-Schweitzer J. Road traffic noise annoyance in domestic environments can be reduced by water sounds. In: Proc of Forum Acusticum, Krakow, Poland, 7–12 September 2014, pp.7–12. Poland: Polish Acoustical Society.

Axelsson

Nilsson

Hellström

et al.

A field experiment on the impact of sounds from a jet-and-basin fountain on soundscape quality in an urban park. Landsc Urban Plan 2014; 123: 49–60.

Galbrun

Ali

. Acoustical and perceptual assessment of water sounds and their use over road traffic noisea). J Acoust Soc Am 2013; 133: 227–237.

Rådsten-Ekman

Axelsson

Nilsson

. Effects of sounds from water on perception of acoustic environments dominated by road-traffic noise. Acta Acust United Acust 2013; 99: 218–225.

10.

Jeon

Lee

You

et al.

Acoustical characteristics of water sounds for soundscape enhancement in urban open spaces. J Acoust Soc Am 2012; 131: 2101–2109.

11.

De Coensel

Vanwetswinkel

Botteldooren

. Effects of natural sounds on the perception of road traffic noise. J Acoust Soc Am 2011; 129: EL148–EL153.

12.

Jeon

Lee

You

et al.

Perceptual assessment of quality of urban soundscapes with combined noise sources and water sounds. J Acoust Soc Am 2010; 127: 1357–1366.

13.

Watts

Pheasant

Horoshenkov

et al.

Measurement and subjective assessment of water generated sounds. Acta Acust United Acust 2009; 95: 1032–1039.

14.

Leung T, Chau C and Tang S. On the study of noise perceptions caused by mixed noises and visual environment. In: Proceedings of the 22nd international congress on sound and vibration, Florence, Italy, 12-16 July 2015, pp.7008–7013. USA: Curran.

15.

Hongisto

Varjo

Oliva

et al.

Perception of water-based masking sounds – long-term experiment in an open-plan office. Front Psychol 2017; 8: 1177–1177.

16.

Ryu

Jeon

. Influence of noise sensitivity on annoyance of indoor and outdoor noises in residential buildings. Appl Acoust 2011; 72: 336–340.

17.

Seçkin

YÇ

. Understanding the relationship between human needs and the use of water in landscape design. ITU J Faculty Archit 2010; 7: 1–17.

18.

Saadatmand

Rejeh

Heravi-Karimooi

et al.

Effect of nature-based sounds’ intervention on agitation, anxiety, and stress in patients under mechanical ventilator support: a randomised controlled trial. Int J Nurs Stud 2013; 50: 895–904.

19.

Rådsten Ekman

Lundén

Nilsson

. Similarity and pleasantness assessments of water-fountain sounds recorded in urban public spaces. J Acoust Soc Am 2015; 138: 3043–3052.

20.

ANSI. ANSI/ASA S12.2. American national standard criteria for evaluation room noise, Melville, NY: Acoustical Society of America (ASA), 2008.

21.

AS. Thermal environmental conditions for human occupancy. ASHRAE standard 55: 2013, Atlanta, GA, US: ASHRAE, 2013.

22.

ISO. ISO 8995-1: 2002 (CIE S 008/E: 2001) lighting of indoor work places. Switzerland: ISO Organización Internacional de Normalización, 2002.

23.

Korea

. Population and housing census, Daejeon: Statistics Korea, 2015.

24.

Thorne

. Assessing intrusive noise and low amplitude sound, Palmerston North, New Zealand: Massey University Wellington Campus, 2007.

25.

Choi

. Actual state and characteristics of indoor noise including residents’ living in apartment units. J Korean Housing Assoc 2009; 20: 83–90.

26.

Kim

Lee

et al.

Test-retest reliability of word recognition score using Korean standard monosyllabic word lists for adults as a function of the number of test words. J Audiol Otol 2015; 19: 68–73.

27.

ISO. ISO 8253-3: acoustics – audiometric test methods – part 3: speech audiometry, Geneva: International Organization for Standardization, 2012.

28.

Kim

J-S

Lim

Hong

H-N

et al.

Development of Korean standard monosyllabic word lists for adults (KS-MWL-A). Audiol Speech Res 2008; 4: 126–140.

29.

Lee

. Standardization of Korean speech audiometry. Audiol Speech Res 2016; 12: S7–S9.

30.

ISO. ISO/TS 15666: 2003 acoustics – assessment of noise annoyance by means of social and socio-acoustic surveys, Geneva: International Organization for Standardization, 2003.

31.

Berglund

Lindvall

. Scaling loudness, noisiness, and annoyance of aircraft noise. J Acoust Soc Am 1975; 57: 930–934.

32.

Berglund

Lindvall

. Scaling loudness, noisiness, and annoyance of community noises. J Acoust Soc Am 1976; 60: 1119–1125.

33.

Budescu

Appelbaum

. Variance stabilizing transformations and the power of the F test. J Educ Behav Stat 1981; 6: 55–74.

34.

Jerger

. Auditory adaptation. J Acoust Soc Am 1957; 29: 357–363.

35.

EPA. Information on levels of environmental noise requisite to protect public health and welfare with an adequate margin of safety, USA: US Environmental Protection Agency, 1974.

36.

ANSI. ANSI/ASA S12.60 part 1. American national standard acoustical performance criteria, design requirements, and guidelines for schools, part 1: permanent schools, Melville, NY: Acoustical Society of America (ASA), 2010.

37.

NIER. A study on risk assessment by exposure pattern of similar time-activity group, Incheon: National Institute of Environmental Research, 2011.

38.

Klepeis

Nelson

Ott

et al.

The national human activity pattern survey (NHAPS): a resource for assessing exposure to environmental pollutants, UAS: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2001.