An initiation to revive the unique sound of Indonesian cities

Abstract

As a large country with thousands of ethnic groups and cultures, it is hoped that every city in Indonesia will have its uniqueness. However, preliminary data collected from 10 major cities in Indonesia shows no identity. The most visited public places in these cities, i.e., parks and squares, which are ideally associated with nature’s sound, are dominated by human noise and traffic noise. Surprisingly, a noisy acoustic environment is not considered a nuisance. The study reported here looks further at how the public place visitors perceived the acoustic environment during their visit. Also, to know whether the participants perceive unique sound that buildsthe sound environment of the public place. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, an online questionnaire developed using a 5-point Likert scale was distributed to collect data. Five hundred and ninety-six respondents participated in the survey. A oneway ANOVA test was run to identify the mean point of the data gathered. At no surprise, it is again strengthened the former study, in which the participants perceived the urban environment in Indonesia as a busy environment. It is, again, caused mainly by traffic noise and human activity noise, and that no unique sound has emerged in the studied cities. The study’s findings shall initiate a program to revive the unique sound of Indonesian cities as they were in the past.