Just as communities have remarkable landmarks that distinguish them visually from other places, every community has a soundscape — the sum of the sounds of everyday life. Sounds can tell us a lot about a community – it’s neighborhoods, workplaces, recreational areas, and infrastructure. The Wheeling Area Soundscape Project was undertaken in the fall of 2024 at West Liberty University by Dr. Robert Kruse, professor of geography, and student research assistant Jonah Harkness. The purpose of the project was to create an interactive online map of sounds typical of the area within 20 miles of Wheeling, West Virginia. Cell phone sound recordings were collected and an online survey was created to better understand how local residents experience community soundscapes. Field recordings and photographs taken at area locations were plotted on the map. Invitations to participate in the survey appeared on several community Facebook pages. Also, residents were invited to send their own thirty-second recordings to the project email address.
Soundscapes
The Wheeling Area Soundscape Project is inspired by the work of R. Murray Schafer. In the 1970s, while at Fraser University, Schafer began research involving soundscapes and their sociocultural implications. Schafer and his colleagues eventually developed the World Soundscape Project and used tape recorders to capture the sounds of locations around the world. Soundscapes can help us understand the characteristics of everyday life including economic development, recreational activities, land use and residential patterns. To use Murray’s phrase, we can become “earwitnesses” to the communities in which we live.
The Survey
A survey was developed to ask respondents about their perceptions of sounds in the community. The survey received a total of 181 responses, some were single-word answers, while others were detailed paragraphs. In order to differentiate between types of sounds, we applied three terms coined by Schafer. As he explains (1993, p. 9), “keynote sounds are the nonhuman sounds of a landscape’s geography, its climate, water, forest, birds, insects and animals. These are usually considered to be background sounds. Second are signals which are foreground sounds of warning devices such as bells, whistles, horns and sirens. They demand the attention of the listener. Third are soundmarks – sounds that are, like landmarks, unique and specially regarded by the people in a community.” We also drew from the typology of Pijanowski et al. (2011) that distinguishes between biophonic sounds (birds, insects, domestic pets), geophonic sounds (rain, wind, thunder, running water), and anthrophonic sounds (talking, shouting, cars, loudspeakers). These terms provided us with a framework for analyzing the sounds to which respondents referred.
Survey Responses
Question: What sounds make you feel at home? (166 responses)
- Birds (60)
- Silence/Quiet (22)
- Music (20)
- Flowing water/creek (17)
- Dogs (15)
Three of the top five responses were keynote sounds (birds, flowing water/creek and dogs). Two of the responses were biophonic (birds, dogs), and one was geophonic (flowing water/creek). Samples of written responses included:
“The birds chirping outside on a nice day when I have the windows open. When my grandchildren are visiting and they are playing, reading them stories and having conversations with them.”
“Cats meows, the wind blowing, sounds from the wheeling island football stadium from my back porch.”
Question: What sounds in your community make you feel content and safe? (157 responses)
- Sounds of nature (37)
- Quiet/Silence (30)
- Birds (27)
- People talking/laughing (24)
- Children playing (20)
All of the five most frequent responses were keynote sounds. Two were biophonic (nature and birds) and two were anthrophonic (people talking/laughing and children playing). Samples of written responses include:
“Quiet, birds chirping, lawnmowers going, neighbor kids laughing when they play in their pool.”
“Ice cream truck, children playing, church bells, train whistle.”
Question: What sounds in your community make you feel uneasy or unsafe? (157 (responses)
- Sirens/Alarms (47)
- Loud vehicles (43)
- Yelling/fighting (40)
- Sudden loud sounds (11)
- Construction (8)
The frequent responses were signals (sirens/alarms). Four of the other responses were negatively valued anthrophonic sounds. Notably, there were no keynote sounds or soundmarks on the list. Samples of written responses include:
“Loud industrial noises, cars on various main arteries (including US-250, I-70, I-470), screaming/fighting.”
“Fire truck horns and sirens, blaring music from cars, loud motorcycles or mufflers, people yelling curse words.”
Question: What sounds are no longer heard that you miss in the Wheeling area? (142 responses)
- Trains (38)
- Kids playing outside (19)
- Boats on the river (8)
- Neighbors conversing outside (8)
- Church bells (6)
All of the top five responses were soundmarks (trains, boats on the river, church bells) and positively valued anthrophonic. Samples of written responses include:
“Trains. The coal industry closed mines and there are not many coal cars on trains now.”
“The iconic sound of Wheeling was the hum of tires on the gridded deck of the Suspension Bridge and then changes in pitch based on the speed of the vehicle and the type and width of the tires.”
“Boat foghorns, Mail Pouch shift and lunch changes, pigeons cooing down at Centre Market.”
Question: How could the soundscape of the Wheeling area be changed to improve the quality of life for residents and visitors? (126 responses)
- More outdoor music, not too loud (12)
- Fewer construction sounds downtown (9)
- Sound barriers along the highways (8)
- More sound-absorbing landscaping (5)
- More fountains (3)
Three of the five most frequent responses involve mitigating or removing anthrophonic sounds, while the other two responses involved adding desirable sounds (soundmarks) to the soundscape. Samples of written responses include:
“Music speakers for a sidewalk stroll at lunch, outdoor seating for conversation breaks, including soft live music at the cafes to bring in the community and support a relaxed atmosphere.”
“More urban trees and plants, sound barriers on major roadways, increased patrolling of city streets, enforcement of sound laws, crackdown on vehicles blasting music.”
Conclusions
It is evident that respondents have positive perceptions of biophonic and geophonic sounds. The highest number of negative perceptions refer to signals – specifically sirens and alarms – and other loud anthrophonic sounds. It is interesting to note that nostalgia for sounds no longer heard is focused on soundmarks of previous eras (trains, boats, church bells). Regarding suggestions for improving the soundscape, most answers had to do with absorbing, eliminating or substituting more desirable anthrophonic sounds (like adding recorded music in public places).
Respondents also seem generally content with keynote sounds. For example, sounds of birds and “nature” were mentioned as contributing to a sense of well-being at home and in the community. However, intrusive anthrophonic sounds appear to be the most troubling. Loud vehicles, shouting and yelling, and other unanticipated loud sounds are identified as anxiety-provoking. Among anthrophonic sounds, signals such as the sirens of police and emergency vehicles make residents feel most ill at ease. As noted earlier, most of the suggestions for improvements to the soundscape involve sound-absorbing structures or urban landscaping that would help to mute extreme industrial and transportation sounds in the community. In addition, several residents emphasized the importance of enforcing existing or new sound-related city ordinances.
A Community Geography
The Wheeling Area Soundscape project aims to benefit the Wheeling area. First, it may help to sensitize residents to the rich and varied soundscapes that characterize their communities. Second, it presents information that may be useful to city planners and other local organizations. Third, the survey responses suggest ways of mitigating intrusive urban sounds and may lead to dialogues about projects to block unfavorable sounds from entering the community. Importantly, the Wheeling Area Soundscape Project is an effort to engage the university with its surrounding community. It creates an opportunity for members of the community to be co-producers of local geographical knowledge that may lead to positive change. The Wheeling Area Soundscape Project is an ongoing effort, and readers are invited to email their own 30-second recordings to WheelingAreaSoundscapeProject@gmail.com for possible inclusion on the map. The interactive story map can also be seen at https://arcg.is/1vL0fb2, and is best viewed on a laptop/desktop computer.
Resources
Pijanowski, B.C., Farina, A., Gage, S.H. et al. (2011). What is soundscape ecology? An
introduction and overview of an emerging new science. Landscape Ecology, 26(1),
1213–1232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-011-9600-8
Schafer, R. (1993). The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World.
Rochester: Destiny books
