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Relationship between street scale and subjective assessment of audio-visual environment comfort based on 3D virtual reality and dual-channel acoustic tests

Liu, F; Kang, J; (2018) Relationship between street scale and subjective assessment of audio-visual environment comfort based on 3D virtual reality and dual-channel acoustic tests. Building and Environment , 129 pp. 35-45. 10.1016/j.buildenv.2017.11.040. Green open access

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Abstract

We examine the influence of street scales (the street width, building height, and street-width-to-building-height ratio, referred to as ‘width-to-height ratio’ in the paper) on visual, acoustic, and audio-visual comfort evaluation (as evaluated by a set of participants) in urban areas. In addition, we examine the relationships between the sound level and the abovementioned subjective comfort evaluation except the visual one. After measuring the street scales and recording the street visual information with a 3D camcorder, the virtual 3D models of the streets were generated. Meanwhile, dual-channel acoustic signals of the streets were collected. Subsequently, subjective tests were carried out using a 3D virtual reality with corresponding sounds using 164 participants. The analysis shows that subjective attitudes are directly related to the street scales. In particular, there is a strong positive correlation between audio-visual comfort and the street width-to-height ratio. In contrast, the three indicators (visual, acoustic, and audio-visual comfort) are strongly negatively correlated to the height, and this type of negative correlation is also observed between subjective indicators (except the visual one) and the sound level. Overall, the respondents found the audio-visual level most comfortable when the street width-to-height ratio is greater than 1, street width is within 20 m, height of street buildings is less than 26 m, and the sound level is less than 58 dBA. It is expected that these findings can aid designers in predicting the ideal audio-visual environment quality for urban streets.

Type: Article
Title: Relationship between street scale and subjective assessment of audio-visual environment comfort based on 3D virtual reality and dual-channel acoustic tests
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2017.11.040
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2017.11.040
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Science & Technology, Technology, Construction & Building Technology, Engineering, Environmental, Engineering, Civil, Engineering, Visual comfort, Acoustic comfort, Audio-visual comfort, Street scale, Sound-Propagation, Noise Perception, Urban, Annoyance, Areas, Soundscapes, Canyons, Health, Spaces
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Bartlett School Env, Energy and Resources
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10047696
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