Assessing the role of soundscape in the sense of belonging to the environment (case study: FARAHZAD neighborhood in Tehran)

Man recognizes and perceives the environment not only through the sense of sight but also through all his senses. Therefore, paying attention to non-physical dimensions in the environment can lead to the creation of spaces with higher environmental qu-ality and better sensory richness. One of the drivers of sense of belonging to the environment is the soundscape, which also affects the quality of urban space. The concept of soundscape refers to the profound effect of natural sounds and tunes on a person's sense of the environment and thus the effect on sensory richness and belonging to the environment. The main goal of this research is identify and evaluate the points of articulation and connection between the two concepts of soundscape and sense of belonging to the environment, in order to explain the intensity and relationship between these two variables in Farahzad neighborhood, that located on the northwest side in District 2 of Tehran, which is also one of the entertainment centers in Tehran. The statistical population of this study includes all residents and users of this site. This research is done on 385 people living or visiting this neighborhood through Sense Walking method. Pleasure is considered as the overall quality of the soundscape of the area from the people's point of view. In this method, people were asked to mark the sound index points in the map by holding a site map and focusing on the sense of hearing, and to determine its pleasant and unpleasant levels between 1 and 5. Accordingly, the number 1 indicates complete unpleasantness and the number 5 indicates the complete pleasantness of the soundscape and the numbers between them express the intermediate qualities. Then, we have considered the average level of pleasantness of different points expressed by people as the overall quality of the soundscape of the area from their point of view. A questionnaire was used to assess the sense of belonging to the area and Pearson correlation coefficient was used to analysis the correlation between the sense of belonging to the environment and the quality of the soundscape. The result of this study with respect to the correlation coefficient of 0.603 indicates a significant relationship between the quality of the soundscape and the degree of sense of spatial belonging in Farahzad neighborhood. On the other hand, the correlation between A-weighted equivalent continuous sound level (L_Aeq) in different spaces studied in Farahzad neighborhood and the average level of satisfaction announced by the respondents is equal to -0.739, which shows a significant and inverse relationship between sound intensity and the quality of the soundscape. The results of research show that the quality of the soundscape in three dimensions of environmental, individual and social is effective in the sense of belonging to the environment, So that the presence of natural elements in the environmental dimension, promoting mental health in the individual dimension and finally listening to the sounds and voices of neighborhood residents and acquaintances in the social dimension has an important effect on the sense of belonging to the environment.