Pleasant sounds can mask traffic noise only at low amplitudes

Evidence

Managing traffic noise is a priority in urban planning and design. This type of noise is very intrusive and produces annoyed reactions in people. Mitigation procedures to reduce traffic noise can utilize the masking effects of pleasant sounds such as waterfalls or bird choruses but this is possible where noise has low value of acoustic amplitude. A more traditional way to reduce noise is to build green barriers using trees that add further benefits in the urban context such as soil cover, habitat for animals, atmospheric pollutant absorption, and scenic value. — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology, 2470

Categorization

• SHARE: Bears directly on the earlier green-barrier discussions in the park management chapters.
• XREF: connects to: Bird song masks noise better than water by adding meaning, not just energy — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 2408; Attractive spaces suffer more from traffic noise than unattractive ones do. — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 1094; Only tones exceeding a level-dependent masked threshold are audible in noise — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 3253

Broader Connections

• Only tones exceeding a level-dependent masked threshold are audible in noise #expands (0.85) — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 3253