Soundscapes of the Province of Turin

The Soundscapes project of the Province of Turin is an initiative of the Environment Department of the Province of Turin in collaboration with ARPA Piemonte and SoundScape Research Group Onlus. The evolution of studies in recent years of Soundscape, due to its interdisciplinary character, has led to important implications also in the field of environmental acoustics. Currently there are groups and research projects on soundscape for various purposes. Arpa Piemonte has collaborated in the last two years with the Province of Turin on the project Soundscapes of the Province of Turin, whose aim is the knowledge and enhancement of the characteristic sounds, peculiar to their territory and beyond. A database of sounds from the provincial territory has been built with the aim of providing a broader knowledge of the world of sounds and listening experience. The project aims to open a discussion with citizens, schools, legislators, industry professionals and anyone interested in the topic, on the relationship between acoustics, noise, sound, sense of hearing and social fabric. They try to explore the capabilities of sounds as a possible access key to understanding a culture and for a different approach to the theme of noise pollution, which has always been addressed only in a negative way. Soundscape could represent a radical paradigm shift in that it considers environmental sounds as a resource rather than a rejection.