Researchers from the Geographic Institute of the University of Würzburg and the Earth Observation Center (EOC) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) teamed up for a study on identifying in-situ measurement sites for urban acoustics. The paper titled “Urban contexts: A geospatial approach to identifying in-situ measurement sites for urban acoustic environments” was just published in the Journal of Environmental Management by Nils Karges, Jeroen Staab, Hannes Taubenböck, and Jürgen Rauh.

Here is the abstract of the paper: Effective urban acoustic environment (UAE) research demands strategic selection of measurement sites that reflect diverse urban conditions. Traditional methods in urban acoustic research often rely on expert judgment or simple stratifications, lacking structured, data-driven approaches and thereby introducing potential selection and confirmation biases. This study presents a novel methodology employing Enclosed Tessellation Cells (ETCs) and unsupervised learning to classify urban areas based on form, function, and environmental variables. Utilizing context-informed purposive sampling, the methodology identifies key locations capturing diverse urban acoustic contexts. The approach was successfully applied in Würzburg, Germany, illustrating robust relationships between urban form, functionality, and acoustic environments, enhancing the ecological validity of soundscape research.

Read the full open-access article here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.125901

This study adds to our works on noise analysis. For related works, please see here:

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479725014513
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-021-00355-z
• https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10144160