Abstract

As of this writing, much is known about acoustics indoors and various sound-absorbing solutions are available. However, less attention was paid to acoustics outdoors which led to serious problems especially in urban environments. Environmental noise has become a relevant issue in the last years due to increasing noise pollution especially in cities. Innovative noise abatement solutions by means of vegetation have been recently presented and evaluated. However, the influence of vegetation on the subjective acceptance of human-induced noise is rather unexplored. Urban residential areas frequently enclose courtyards that may or may not be be used for recreational purposes. Hence, the aim of this thesis is to address the influence of different courtyard conditions, including vegetated and non-vegetated characteristics, on road traffic noise in urban surroundings with respect to the perceptional acceptance. It is shown which characteristics of courtyards are the driving factors in order to explain acceptance of road traffic noise. Moreover, loudness seems to be one of the driving factors when acceptance has to be explained. Thus, it is revealed which characteristics are still significant in explaining the acceptance of road traffic noise in courtyards in case loudness differences can not be detected.

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