Urban soundscape: Analyzing spatiotemporal patterns of acoustic events and soundscape components, and its influence on the socio-economic status of New York City neighborhoods

Research literature establishing the detrimental effects of acoustic noise on urban wellbeing is well-documented, and can cause problems such as sleep deprivation, cognitive impairments and cardiovascular diseases. Recent studies also indicate that the socially disadvantaged are subject to greater exposure to environmental hazards. The motivation behind this research is to fill a gap in the literature evaluating urban soundscapes by (1) measuring the spatiotemporal patterns of acoustic events and the distribution of composite soundscape components within selected New York City (NYC) neighborhoods and (2) analyzing this datum with socio-economic data of the surrounding urban environments. This paper focuses on seven NYC neighborhoods, each representing one of the seven levels of noise metadata found on the 311 noise map which produced ninety 30-minute soundscape samples of different time intervals across three days. Findings aligned with the hypothesis that high numbers of acoustic events negatively correlate to the socioeconomic composition of neighborhoods but showed inconsistencies when compared to neighborhood noise metadata.