Principles Of Soundscape Ecology

From a founding figure in the field, the definitive introduction to an exciting new science. What do the sounds of a chorus of tropical birds and frogs, a clap of thunder, and a cacophony of urban traffic have in common? They are all components of a soundscape, acoustic environments that have been identified by scientists as a combination of the biophony, geophony, and anthrophony, respectively, of all of Earth’s sound sources. As sound is a ubiquitous occurrence in nature, it is actively sensed by most animals and is an important way for them to understand how their environment is changing. For humans, environmental sound is a major factor in creating a psychological sense of place, and many forms of sonic expression by people embed knowledge and culture. In this book, soundscape ecology pioneer Bryan C. Pijanowski presents the definitive text for both students and practitioners who are seeking to engage with this thrilling new field. Principles of Soundscape Ecology clearly outlines soundscape ecology’s critical foundations, key concepts, methods, and applications. Fundamentals include concise and valuable descriptions of the physics of sound as well as a thorough elucidation of all sounds that occur on Earth. Pijanowski also presents a rich overview of the ecological, sociocultural, and technical theories that support this new science, illustrating the breadth of this amazingly transdisciplinary field. In methods, he describes the principles of data mining, signal processing, and mixed methods approaches used to study soundscapes in ecological, social, or socio-ecological contexts. The final section focuses on terrestrial, aquatic, urban, and music applications, demonstrating soundscape ecology’s utility in nearly all spaces.

Soundscape Ecology represents a new branch of ecology and it is the result of the integration of different disciplines like Landscape ecology, Bioacoustics, Acoustic ecology, Biosemiotics, etc. The soundscape that is the object of this discipline, is defined as the acoustic context resulting from natural and human originated sounds and it is considered a relevant environmental proxy for animal and human life. With Soundscape Ecology Almo Farina means to offer a new cultural tool to investigate a partially explored component of the environmental complexity. For this he intends to set the principles of this new discipline, to delineate the epistemic domain in which to develop new ideas and theories and to describe the necessary integration with all the other ecological/environmental disciplines. The book is organized in ten chapters. The first two chapters delineate principles and theory of soundscape ecology. Chapters three and four describe the bioacoustic and communication theories. Chapter five is devoted to the human dimension of soundscape. Chapters six to eight regard the major sonic patterns like noise, choruses and vibrations. Chapter nine is devoted to the methods in soundscape ecology and finally chapter ten describes the application of the soundscape analysis.

The sounds produced by geophonic, biophonic and technophonic sources are relevant to the function of natural and human modified ecosystems. Passive recording is one of the most non-invasive technologies as its use avoids human intrusion during acoustic surveys and facilitates the accumulation of huge amounts of acoustical data. For the first time, this book collates and reviews the science behind ecoaucostics; illustrating the principles, methods and applications of this exciting new field. Topics covered in this comprehensive volume include; the assessment of biodiversity based on sounds emanating from a variety of environments the best technologies and methods necessary to investigate environmental sounds implications for climate change and urban systems the relationship between landscape ecology and ecoacoustics the conservation of soundscapes and the social value of ecoacoustics areas of potential future research. An invaluable resource for scholars, researchers and students, Ecoacoustics: The Ecological Role of Sounds provides an unrivalled set of ideas, tools and references based on the current state of the field.

Soundscape Basics and Practical Implications Soundscape research represents a paradigm shift, as it involves human and social sciences and physical measurements to account for the diversity of soundscapes across countries and cultures. Moreover, it treats environmental sounds as a resource rather than a waste. Soundscape and the Built Environment is the first book to systematically discuss soundscape in the built environment. It begins with a presentation of theory and basic background, answering questions such as: what is soundscape, how is it important, and how does it affect people in terms of their health and perception on the acoustic environment. The book then sets out tools for implementing a soundscape approach, with measurement techniques, mapping, and good soundscape practices. It also delivers a series of examples of the application of the soundscape approach in planning, design, and assessment. Discusses soundscape and environmental noise Explores cultural variations and the way they influence soundscape Introduces binaural measurement technology and psychoacoustics Examines the physical, psychological, and physiological restorative mechanism of high-quality acoustic environments Presents soundscape mapping based on human perception of sound sources Includes real-world examples and case studies highlighting the key issues in soundscape intervention Soundscape and the Built Environment is written by a group of leading international figures and derives from a four-year EU COST project on Soundscapes of European Cities and Landscapes. It presents a consensus on the current state of the art and is not merely a collection of different views. It is written for acoustic consultants, urban planners, designers and policy makers, as well as for graduate students and researchers.

Landscape ecology is an integrative and multi-disciplinary science and Principles and Methods in Landscape Ecology reconciles the geological, botanical, zoological and human perspectives. In particular ,new paradigms and theories such as percolation, metapopulation, hierarchies, source-sink models have been integrated in this last edition with the recent theories on bio-complexity, information and cognitive sciences. Methods for studying landscape ecology are covered including spatial geometry models and remote sensing in order to create confidence toward techniques and approaches that require a high experience and long-time dedication. Principles and Methods in Landscape Ecology is a textbook useful to present the landscape in a multi-vision perspective for undergraduate and graduate students of biology, ecology, geography, forestry, agronomy, landscape architecture and planning. Sociology, economics, history, archaeology, anthropology, ecological psychology are some sciences that can benefit of the holistic vision offered by this texbook.

This book represents an introduction to ecoacoustics theory, to the application of the Acoustic Complexity Indices (ACIs) to acoustic survey, and to the use of an innovative software to process acoustic data. It enables readers to comprehend the main principles that guide the recent development of ecoacoustics and offers a synthesis about the role of sound in the ecological research. Readers will be introduced to the use of the ACIs by a detailed description of the main algorithms recently formulated and on their correct application in the acoustic processing concurring to the creation of sonic information systems. Readers will also find a new dedicated software application, namely SonoScape, that is described in detail with its codes attached in the supplementary material in a completely visible format. The SonoScape is a performing software application operating in MatLab® and is enriched of several options to manage single and large collection of acoustics files. It vides the feasibility to process data at different temporal scale, using different combination of parameters, and to extract novel complexity measures such as entropy and fractal dimension of ecoacoustic events. It also offers functions to visualize the results using customized 3-D plots or ternary plots, intuitively demonstrating the patterns of ACIs based on the vast number of numerical results. Finally, this book provides several examples of case studies with the aim of better understanding the potentiality of ACIs and the power of SonoScape as multitasking software to approaching the complexity of the ecoacoustic investigation. Students and scholars in ecology, land managers and technicians may find an important tool to interpret the complex relationship between humans and natural processes when sounds are adopted as proxy.

This volume reads the global urban environment through mediated sonic practices to put a contemporary spin on acoustic ecology’s investigations at the intersection of space, cultures, technology, and the senses. Acoustic ecology is an interdisciplinary framework from the 1970s for documenting, analyzing, and transforming sonic environments: an early model of the cross-boundary thinking and multi-modal practices now common across the digital humanities. With the recent emergence of sound studies and the expansion of “ecological” thinking, there is an increased urgency to re-discover and contemporize the acoustic ecology tradition. This book serves as a comprehensive investigation into the ways in which current scholars working with sound are re-inventing acoustic ecology across diverse fields, drawing on acoustic ecology’s focus on sensory experience, place, and applied research, as well as attendance to mediatized practices in sounded space. From sounding out the Anthropocene, to rethinking our auditory media landscapes, to exploring citizenship and community, this volume brings the original acoustic ecology problem set into the contemporary landscape of sound studies.