On the study of effects on different types of natural sounds on the perception of combined sound environment with road traffic noise

Previous studies suggested that individuals generally had high preferences for natural sounds. Natural sounds like water sounds and bird songs added to noises were determined to be able to improve quality of acoustic environment. Although it has been revealed on how different types of water sounds would affect the preferences for the environment differently when adding to road traffic to noises, little effort was spent on investigating how different types of natural sounds would interact with the noises in a combined sound environment. Accordingly, this study aimed at comparing the effects of bird songs and water sounds on the perception of combined sound environment. It also aimed at studying whether a particular range of signal-to-noise ratio existed for bird songs such that it could provide the best sound masking effect for traffic noise. Also, it aimed at formulating a multivariate model to portray the annoyances responses when different types of natural sounds were added to traffic noise. The findings arising from this study should provide more insights on open space planning in order to maximize the acoustic comfort in the environment.