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Urban Noise Control, Public Health and Sustainable Cities

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Pollution Prevention, Mitigation and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 2373

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Chair of Acoustics and Haptics, Institute of Acoustics and Speech Communication, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
Interests: Noise, soundscapes, noise control, sound design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Chair of Acoustics and Haptics, Institute of Acoustics and Speech Communication, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
Interests: Noise, soundscapes, noise control, sound design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, urban environments have undergone spatial reformulation, with  spaces made more suitable, comfortable, and green; sustainable energy solutions employed; and net zero strategies established to create sustainable environments. Soundscape interventions and noise abatement measures have been suggested to address issues in the sonic environment. However, there is little evidence of their impacts in social, cultural, decision-making/behavioural, environmental, health, well-being, and policy contexts.

This Special Issue of Sustainability encourages the submission of articles and reviews presenting disciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and convergence research on “Urban Noise Control, Public Health and Sustainable Cities”. Topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Environmental noise;
  • Noise abatement;
  • Emerging noise sources;
  • Strategic soundscape planning;
  • Soundscape interventions;
  • Sustainable soundscapes;
  • Soundscape design;
  • Restorative sonic environments;
  • Quiet areas;
  • Urban health.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Ercan Altinsoy
Dr. Margret Sibylle Engel
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • environmental noise
  • noise abatement
  • emerging noise sources
  • strategic soundscape planning
  • soundscape interventions
  • sustainable soundscapes
  • soundscape design
  • restorative sonic environment
  • quiet areas
  • urban health

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

18 pages, 1179 KiB  
Review
Soundscape Research in Streets: A Scoping Review
by Zeynep Sena Ozturk, Jian Kang and Francesco Aletta
Sustainability 2025, 17(8), 3329; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17083329 - 9 Apr 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1234
Abstract
Streets play a crucial role in shaping urban soundscapes, influencing individual wellbeing and urban sustainability. Although urban soundscapes have been widely studied, research focusing on street soundscapes remains limited. This scoping review aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the main themes and [...] Read more.
Streets play a crucial role in shaping urban soundscapes, influencing individual wellbeing and urban sustainability. Although urban soundscapes have been widely studied, research focusing on street soundscapes remains limited. This scoping review aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the main themes and methodologies used in recent street soundscape literature. Scopus and ScienceDirect databases were searched for journal articles and conference papers with the keywords “street and sound”. The review included articles published in English between 2000 and 2025. The selected studies focused on soundscapes in outdoor environments while offering insights into streetscape features. Articles that did not focus on perception of the street environment or report a sample size were excluded, resulting in 16 studies in the final review. Soundscapes were mostly examined in terms of noise annoyance (n = 6) and sound perception (n = 14), distinguishing between pleasant and unpleasant sounds. Natural elements are frequently identified as essential streetscape (n = 8) and soundscape components of streets (n = 3). These features are associated with positive perceptions, whereas traffic features are perceived negatively. The predominant methodological approach was laboratory studies (n = 10), with participant groups typically consisting of healthy adults. Sample sizes ranged from 10 to 1200. Overall, the literature points to a significant gap in research on the effect of street soundscapes on wellbeing, revealing that numerous streetscape characteristics remain unexplored and the link between soundscapes and street features has not been thoroughly examined. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Noise Control, Public Health and Sustainable Cities)
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