Extending the scope of urban sound planning by education and research

Based on continuous research work as well as on growing demands of all involved it is widely agreed today that acoustic comfort in cities should aim for more than just preventing and controlling given noise. However, in practice this typically fails because of two dilemmas: Acoustical aspects are considered too late and with a limited scope only, limited to make other non-acoustic planning acoustically acceptable. This then prevents any approaches to plan and go for desired sound scenarios from being applied. The European Integrated Training Network SONORUS tries to overcome this restriction by application oriented research, exemplary application to test sites and – above all – by education. Nine partners from all over Europe, coordinated by Chalmers University of Gothenburg, work together to educate 14 young researchers in urban sound planning. Apart from complementing available tools for practical application and testing these tools in case studies provided by five associated European cities, the basic idea of the project is to supply the researchers with all skills enabling them to acoustically contribute with competence to a holistic urban planning process. It is hoped that the concrete availability of their respective competence will help to extend the scope of Urban Sound planning in practice.