Rethinking Lifestyle

Almo Farina of the University of Urbino in Italy near the Adriatic Sea measures the health of an ecosystem by recording the sounds it makes.

Sounds can be categorized into 3 sections: biophony- sounds made by animals, geophony – sounds made by wind, water and the earth, anthrophony – sounds made by humans (mostly noise). Noise is sound without purpose, that is, the weeds of the acoustic world.

Animals (mostly birds) in the landscape are part of a symphony; they make a sound when there is a space, they wait for the space. The fuller the sound profile the fuller the ecosystem. Sounds are separated in space but also in frequency. Each organism fills a unique space in the acoustic map. The more the map is filled the healthier the ecosystem.

This is a new scientific field. It was first established as a field of study by Almo Farina, Urbino University in Italy in approximately 2006, but interst was also emerging in other parts of the world (Soundwalking as ecological practise, Hiosaki, Japan 2006). The first articles on soundscaping (After Silent Spring in 1962) were published in 2011.

Sounds have a profound influence on our health and wellbeing. Some sounds like running water are peaceful. A gentle rain can be peaceful unless you are a farmer worried about too much water for your crop. Ocean waves, wind through the trees, humming, flute, samphire, choral music are peaceful. Songbirds are stimulating and uplifting except maybe a mourning dove that sounds melancholy. One of the reasons why so many urban people are plugged in to music is that the sounds around them are not pleasant sounds. It is a method of blocking out noise. Many of our urban landscapes have ever increasing levels (decibels) of sound. Our brains adjust to the increasing decibels so that when total silence follows we call it deafening silence. At the other end, our brains adjust to silence so that small sounds are recognized and acknowledged.

Children who are backward in reading are strikingly insensitive to rhyme and alliteration. They are at a disadvantage when categorizing words on the basis of common sounds even in comparison with younger children who read no better than they do. Categorizing words in this way involves attending to their constituent sounds, and so does learning to use the alphabet in reading and spelling. Thus the experiences which a child has with rhyme and sound before they go to school might have a considerable effect on their success later on in learning to read and to write.

Further applications of sound ecology can be found in recent reports of whale deaths. Many of the deaths are blamed on noise pollution in our oceans and rivers. Whales and other sea creatures rely on sound for their whole social network; calling back and forth as well as finding food and sticking together as a community.

An understanding of the role of sound in the landscape can help us be more sustainable in our management of our surroundings and in living in them in a way that is friendly way to other inhabitants.