Conscious Walk Assessment for the Joint Evaluation of the Soundscape, Air Quality, Biodiversity and Comfort in Barcelona and Sabadell

Abstract

Environmental noise, poor biodiversity and air pollution are a major concern for the European population due to their impact on citizens’ health, especially for those citizens living in urban environments. Conscious Walk proposal suggests a hybrid methodology to face the perceptive impact of citizens on their environment. Conscious walks have been defined as a citizen science participative project where scientists also collect high quality acoustic, chemical and biodiversity data while moving in a preselected urban environment. The final goal of the method is to get both subjective and objective data coming from soundscape, but also metrics of air quality, biodiversity and urban comfort, all of them strongly related to acoustic environmental quality. This methodology has been tested in Catalonia in different locations (Sabadell, Barcelona, etc.). In this contribution, the soundscapes of the urban center of Sabadell and the Ciutadella Park in Barcelona are evaluated. Their data is crossed with the air quality and the biodiversity information gathered in the Conscious Walk