Please login first
Conscious Walk Methodology Design for Acoustic, Air Quality and Biodiversity Evaluation in Urban Environments
1 , * 2, 3 , 1 , 4 , 1 , * 4 , * 5 , 1 , * 6
1  GTM–Grup de Recerca en Tecnologies Mèdia, La Salle – Universitat Ramon Llull. c/Quatre Camins, 30, 08022 Barcelona, Spain
2  CREAF, Edifici Ciències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
3  Unitat d’Ecologia, BABVE, Edifici Ciències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
4  Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC/CERCA), Parc Mediterrani de la Tecnologia,Av. Carl Friedrich Gauss 7, Building B4, 08860 Castelldefels, Spain
5  Replantegem. Carrer Creueta 119, baixos esquerra, 08202, Sabadell, Catalonia, Spain
6  HER - Human Environment Research, La Salle - URL
Academic Editor: Francisco Falcone

Abstract:

Environmental noise and air pollution as well as the poor green infrastructure quality is a major concern for the European population due to its impact of citizens health, especially for those citizens living in urban environments, which is materialized in a rising number of complaints to public administration. This issue is further stressed for urban areas located close to aggressive pollutants such as airports, railways, highways, or leisure areas. To attend this situation from the citizen everyday life, this paper proposes a hybrid methodology of a collective campaign, where citizens, especially from those environments that have a stronger impact on them, and scientists collect high quality acoustic, chemical and biodiversity data. The campaign consists in a conscious walk that considers both the acoustic measurements conducted by experts but also by citizens, as well as air quality measurements and biodiversity descriptions. The final goal of the method is to obtain subjective and objective data coming from soundscape, air quality and biodiversity to evaluate a pre-designed walk in an urban location, in the surroundings of Parc de la Ciutadella, in Barcelona.

Keywords: acoustic pollution; air pollution; biodiversity; citizen science; sensors
Top