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Description
This paper presents ECHO-POLIS, a 24-month project to characterise and interpret the soundscape of a mountain city—Andorra la Vella and Escaldes-Engordany—through a hybrid approach that integrates objective acoustic monitoring, AI-based source analysis, and citizen perception. The experimental design combines a fixed sensor network deployed across contrasting urban typologies (pedestrian commercial areas, traffic corridors, green spaces, mixed plazas, and quieter residential pockets) with mountain and transition points located along plausible “sound pathways” towards the city. This dual-layer configuration supports a central question: whether, when, and under which meteorological and activity conditions natural mountain sounds (water, wind, fauna) measurably influence the urban sound environment and its perceived quality. Continuous time series are collected (e.g., LAeq profiles and temporal variability descriptors) and complemented by synchronised seasonal campaigns (summer and winter) to capture tourism-driven dynamics and environmental variability. Acoustic data are processed using sound event detection and AI-based source classification to derive indicators of source composition, dominance, intermittency, and time-of-day patterns, consistently computed across urban and mountain sites. In parallel, participatory soundwalks, short ISO 12913-aligned perception surveys, and mobile contributions provide contextual and perceptual descriptors across key target groups (schools, residents, shopkeepers, and tourists). The project delivers physically grounded yet user-relevant hybrid indicators, interactive maps and dashboards for non-expert stakeholders, and a transferable methodological toolkit to support replication in other urban–mountain territories. A final co-validation phase with local authorities links indicators to planning decisions, producing two adoptable action plans (urban soundscape management and mountain-sound integration) and guidance for standardised deployment and reporting across seasons.