Birdsong and Water: Why Quieter Cities Are Not Necessarily More Comfortable

For decades, the fight against urban noise has followed a simple logic: measure the decibels, set legal limits, and push the numbers down. A new research article from the Universidad de Granada, published in the journal Frontiers in Built Environment, argues that this logic is breaking down. Led by Jerónimo Vida Manzano, with Angel F. Ramos-Ridao, M. Carmen Aguilar-Luzón and Rafael García-Quesada, the study contends that lower noise levels do not inherently improve quality of life, and that traditional noise-management protocols are increasingly viewed as insufficient for achieving true acoustic comfort. The authors propose a different goal altogether: cities designed not merely to be quiet, but to sound good.

The conceptual engine behind this shift is the soundscape approach, formalized in the ISO 12913 series of standards. Where classical noise control treats environmental sound as a pollutant to be suppressed, the soundscape paradigm redefines the acoustic environment as a perceptual construct — something that exists in the interaction between physical sound, the listener and the place. In this view, sound is not automatically a hazard. It can be a resource for sustainable urban design, capable of supporting public health, well-being and even intangible cultural heritage, provided planners understand how people actually perceive and evaluate what they hear.

The practical problem the researchers identify is a blind spot in conventional noise action planning. Strategic noise maps and regulatory thresholds are built on acoustic quality objectives: numerical ceilings that specify which sound levels can or cannot be exceeded. Standard sound level meters, however, cannot detect what citizens prefer, remember or find restorative in a given setting. Two streets with identical decibel readings can feel entirely different to the people walking through them, depending on what is making the noise, what else is happening around it and what the listener expected to encounter. Capturing that layer of experience requires methods drawn from perception research rather than engineering alone.

To build such methods into planning practice, the team drew on previous experience of soundscape assessments in Granada, in southern Spain. Standardized protocols for measuring environmental acoustics and public perception in context were used to refine the methodology and conduct targeted soundwalks — structured listening walks in which participants evaluate the acoustic environment as they move through it. The soundwalks focused on the affective qualities of the city center and its expanding fringe areas, comparing how the historic core and the growing periphery are heard by the people who inhabit and traverse them.

The findings point to context as the decisive variable. According to the study, context-specific factors such as human activity and personal expectations significantly dictate how an acoustic environment is perceived. The same sound can be welcome or intrusive depending on whether it fits the scene, so perception is not a simple function of sound pressure; it is shaped by meaning, activity and anticipation. That result undermines the assumption behind uniform noise ceilings: a level that guarantees compliance on paper may still fail to deliver acoustic comfort on the ground.

One result stands out for its implications for city design. Natural sounds — birdsong and water among them — were shown to enhance comfort even in high-decibel environments. That observation challenges the assumption that decibel reduction is the only route to acoustic well-being. The presence of preferred natural sounds can apparently offset otherwise uncomfortable noise levels, suggesting that the composition of an urban sound scene matters as much as its overall loudness. For planners, this opens a design lever that conventional noise maps never capture: adding preferred sounds, not just removing unwanted ones.

The study also looks forward to a predictive tool. By integrating soundscape assessments into urban planning, the authors argue, cities could be created where the environment actively promotes public health and well-being and safeguards intangible cultural heritage — the sounds that give a place its identity. As a concrete contribution, the work identifies design variables for a prediction model intended to help planners create the restorative, sensory-led acoustic climates that citizens prefer. Such a model would allow the perceptual consequences of design choices to be anticipated before a street, square or district is built or redesigned.

The authors frame the work as an advocacy and methodology-building exercise rather than a finished prescription. The reported findings come from soundscape assessments and soundwalks in Granada’s city center and fringe areas, and the article’s final formatted version is listed as forthcoming, with the abstract noting that the study contributes to the identification of variables for a future prediction model rather than presenting that model itself. Even so, the direction of travel is clear: if soundscape assessment becomes a standard complement to noise action planning, urban design decisions could be judged not only by how little sound a place produces, but by how well what it sounds like serves the people who live there.

Subject of Research: Towards acoustic sensory urbanism: soundscape assessment as a tool for noise action planning and sustainable urban design

Article Title: Towards acoustic sensory urbanism: soundscape assessment as a tool for noise action planning and sustainable urban design

Article References: Vida Manzano, J., Ramos-Ridao, Á. F., Aguilar-Luzón, M. D. C., & García-Quesada, R. (2026). Towards acoustic sensory urbanism: soundscape assessment as a tool for noise action planning and sustainable urban design. Frontiers in Built Environment, 12, Article 1971062. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2026.1971062

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fbuil.2026.1971062

Keywords: Towards, acoustic, sensory, urbanism, soundscape, assessment, tool, noise, action, planning, sustainable, urban