PAISAGEM SONORA DE DUAS PRAÇAS DE BELO HORIZONTE (MG), EM ESTAÇÕES DISTINTAS – VERÃO E INVERNO

Abstract

The quality of life in cities is intrinsically related to the global environmental comfort that its inhabitants experience daily in their spaces, which includes the quality of the sound environment of the urban areas. Soundscape studies are important tools in the analysis of sound environments by indicating the set of sounds present in certain places and the way in which these sounds are perceived, understood and judged by the individuals of that society. The present article aims to present and discuss the responses of users of open urban spaces with regard to the description and analysis of the local soundscape, based on data collected in two seasons (summer and winter) of the year 2013, in two squares of the municipality of Belo Horizonte, MG. During the field surveys, acoustic data were measured simultaneously to the application of forms, used to collect variables related to the description (identification of sounds) and to the evaluation of the soundscape (classification of these sounds as pleasant or unpleasant). The results demonstrate the importance of the study of the soundscape in the evaluation of the urban sound environments, which should encompass the subjective together with the objective evaluation of sounds to provide subsidies for projects in the area of urban acoustics.