CNH-RCN: A Global Sustainable Soundscape Network

声音是所有景观永恒的、动态的属性。动物的鸣叫声和奔腾的动物声，以及非生物的流水和沙沙的风声，都源于自然景观。相比之下，城市景观主要是由各种来源发出的人为声音所主导，如机器、警报器和轮胎在人行道上旋转产生的摩擦力。自从雷切尔·卡森的开创性著作《寂静的春天》以来，大自然的声音一直与环境质量密不可分。由于声音是自然的基本属性，可以受到各种人类活动的剧烈影响，因此声音为研究自然和人类耦合系统的动力学提供了一个宝贵的视角。近年来，生态学家、认知心理学家和人文学者开始从他们自己的自然、社会和创造性的学科角度来研究声景观。在美国、加拿大和欧洲的工作正在这三个阵营进行，几乎没有协调。即使在生态社区内，也没有形成一个正式的组织，允许对研究进行整合和比较。为了促进这些学者群体之间的互动，并邀请其他领域的学者研究声音作为人类与自然系统相互作用的衡量标准和视角，该奖项将建立一个研究协调网络(RCN)，即全球可持续声音景观网络。这个RCN将汇集生态学家(景观生态学家和保护生物学家)、声学生态学家(来自创意艺术)以及声学家和心理声学家(研究声音和人们如何感知声音的科学家)，以协调对世界各地不同声音景观的研究。该网络将帮助促进不同学科之间就音景的构成和控制动态的基本机制以及人类在环境中体验声音的方式进行公开交流，方法是支持讲习班、共享工具、社会网络和协调“主题小组”的活动，这些小组将处理标准、跨学科能力建设、可持续性、保护和参与等问题。RCN将协调四到五个声景监测点的活动，这些监测点已经并将收集长期的声学数据。RCN将寻求为声学数据开发一个通用词汇表、长期监测标准和元数据标准，供研究人员使用。它将通过各种活动提高生态学家和社会科学家对这一新领域的认识，并将提高公众对人类与自然声音联系的重要性的认识。这个RCN项目也将对教育产生影响。将支持四名博士生作为研究员参加讲习班，并将与保护团体和自然资源管理机构协调举办两期讲习班。四名本科生将在主办大学进行声景研究。这个研究协调网络将促进关于声音作为自然和人类系统之间动态相互作用的衡量和视角的新研究。它将促进正在研究声景的不同学科的学者之间更多的联系，并将鼓励其他研究人员参与进来。RCN还将寻求扩大公众对音景的认识，并将通过让塔斯基吉大学和阿拉巴马州农工大学的学者参与领导角色，促进属于代表性不足的少数群体成员的研究人员的参与。该项目得到了美国自然与人类耦合系统动力学(CNH)计划的支持。

Sounds are a perpetual and dynamic property of all landscapes. The sounds of vocalizing and stridulating animals and the non-biological sounds of running water and rustling wind emanate from natural landscapes. In contrast, urban landscapes are dominated by human-produced sounds radiating from a variety of sources, such as machines, sirens, and friction generated by tires rotating over pavement. Since Rachel Carson's seminal book, Silent Spring, nature's sounds have been inextricably linked to environmental quality. Because sound is a fundamental property of nature and can be drastically affected by a variety of human activities, sound provides a valuable perspective for examining the dynamics of coupled natural and human systems. In recent years, ecologists, cognitive psychologists, and scholars in the humanities have begun to study soundscapes from their own natural, social, and creative disciplinary perspective. Work in the U.S., Canada, and Europe is moving forward in these three camps with little to no coordination. Even within the ecological community, no formal group has been formed that allows research to be integrated and compared. To facilitate interaction among these communities of scholars and to invite scholars from other fields to examine sounds as measures of and perspectives into human and natural system interactions, this award will establish a research coordination network (RCN), the Global Sustainable Soundscape Network. This RCN will bring together ecologists (landscape ecologists and conservation biologists), acoustic ecologists (from the creative arts) and acousticians and psychoacousticians (scientists that study sound and how people perceive sound) to coordinate studies of diverse soundscapes around the world. The network will help to foster open communication among different disciplines about the composition of soundscapes and the underlying mechanisms that control dynamics and the ways that humans experience sounds in the environment through the support of workshops, sharing of tools, social networking, and activities of coordinated "theme teams" that will address standards, interdisciplinary capacity building, sustainability, and conservation and engagement among other issues. The RCN will coordinate activities across four or five soundscape monitoring sites where long-term acoustic data have been and will be collected. The RCN will look to develop a common vocabulary, long-term monitoring standards, and metadata standards for acoustic data for use by researchers. It will increase awareness of this new field among ecologists and social scientists through a variety of activities, and it will increase public awareness of the importance of people's acoustic connection to nature. This RCN project also will impact education. Four doctoral students will be supported as fellows to participate in workshops, and two workshops will conducted in coordination with conservation groups and natural resource management agencies. Four undergraduate students will conduct soundscape research at host universities.This research coordination network will stimulate new research on the role of sound as a measure of and perspective on the dynamic interactions among natural and human systems. It will facilitate greater contact among scholars in different disciplines who are examining soundscapes, and it will encourage other researchers to become involved. The RCN also will seek to broaden public awareness of soundscapes, and it will facilitate the involvement of researchers who are members of underrepresented minority groups by involving in leadership roles scholars from Tuskegee University and Alabama A&M University. This project is supported by the NSF Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program.