Conveners
A18.07 Sound evaluation in a wider context: S134
- Timothy Van Renterghem (Ghent University)
- Manish Manohare
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Arianna Astolfi (Politecnico di Torino)10/09/2026, 16:00A18 Soundscape, Environmental Quality, Health and Well-being
Office users’ health, comfort and work productivity are influenced by the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) of the environment in which they work. This study presents a three-months monitoring of the thermal, acoustic, visual and air quality conditions of two corporate open-plan offices, located at the ground and first floor of the building, through a commercial multi-sensor and the PROMET&O...
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Timothy Van Renterghem (Ghent University)10/09/2026, 16:20A18 Soundscape, Environmental Quality, Health and Well-being
Previous research has shown that audio-visual interactions in environmental perception—and in environmental noise perception in particular—can be effectively leveraged in urban sound planning. However, the extent to which audio-visual cues are integrated varies substantially across individuals. A distinction can be made between individuals who rely predominantly on visual information and those...
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Marcello Lussana (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg)10/09/2026, 16:40A18 Soundscape, Environmental Quality, Health and Well-being
The correlation between acoustic indices (Bradfer-Lawrence et al. 2025; Dröge et al. 2024) and human responses—both subjective assessments and physiological responses—remains an understudied area in environmental soundscape research. While some recent studies (Durbridge and Murphy 2023; Qin et al. 2025; Uebel et al. 2025) shows subjective-physiological correlations, no study has integrated...
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Gunnar Cerwén (SLU)10/09/2026, 17:00A18 Soundscape, Environmental Quality, Health and Well-being
Soundscape research has broadened the understanding of environmental sound beyond a primary focus on negative effects, emphasising a wider range of perceptual qualities. These perceptual qualities are commonly operationalised through dimensions such as pleasantness and eventfulness, in line with ISO 12913.However, soundscape evaluations are often treated as momentary entities, whereas...
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Rodrigo Vassallo (TU Delft)10/09/2026, 17:20A18 Soundscape, Environmental Quality, Health and Well-being
Noise annoyance drives the sustained activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, resulting in the release of catecholamines and cortisol. Chronic neuroendocrine activation can lead to a pathophysiological cascade characterized by systemic and neural inflammation, oxidative stress, and structural brain changes, favoring the development of...
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Marian Weger (French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis (ISL))10/09/2026, 17:40A18 Soundscape, Environmental Quality, Health and Well-being
High-level impulse noise from firearms and explosives poses a major risk of hearing injury, particularly for soldiers and police officers during routine training. When source reduction is not feasible, appropriate Hearing Protection Devices (HPDs) are required to limit individual exposure. However, HPDs must provide sufficient attenuation without unnecessarily compromising comfort,...
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Sina Buchholz (Fraunhofer IDMT-HSA, Oldenburg)10/09/2026, 18:00A18 Soundscape, Environmental Quality, Health and Well-being
In noisy workplaces, wearing a hearing protection device (HPD) is mandatory but can impair situational awareness and the audibility of environmental sounds. Level-dependent HPDs amplify soft sounds to ensure audibility while still attenuating high-level sounds. However, they can also impair situational awareness, e.g., regarding localization and detection of warning signals. Distance...
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