Thursday, August 16, 2018

Project DeStress World

Project DeStress (name your neighbourhood, town, city or country) is an exciting research and public engagement project exploring the connections between the sounds we hear in places (soundscapes), our ability to relax and recover (cognitive restoration) and the design of the built environment. The intention is for Designing and Engineering Soundscapes To enable Restorative Environments for Sustainable Societies.

The project will combine knowledge on the health and wellbeing outcomes from experiencing sound in quiet and calm places and how this varies depending on the design of the surrounding buildings and infrastructure.

We want to engage with public, planners, designers, acousticians, and decision makers to understand more about how the sounds around us (soundscapes) impacts on our cognitive and emotional experiences of outdoor public city places. Learning about the effect of the physical design of our buildings, roads, parks, and city spaces on what we hear and do in places, will help us plan and manage our city environments to be beneficial for people’s health and wellbeing and quality of life.














Changes in our built environment can encourage people to stay in a place or quickly walk through it, thus we are interested in preserving those special urban places that do provide some quiet, calm, and tranquillity in our vibrant, buzzing cities.

Project DeStress Singapore Starts Today

Identifying quiet

and calm urban

outdoor places

Do you live, work, or regularly visit either Singapore, Sentosa island  or  Pulau Ubin?
Want the opportunity to be entered into a draw for one of three $15 NTUC vouchers?
Have 10-15 minutes to spare? Then please participate in our online study.

Cities can be exciting and eventful, but they can also be noisy. Access to quiet and calm outdoor places is a necessary balance for cities. Now every world city needs to identify and preserve outdoor places that are quiet. The trouble is knowing which places people think are quiet or calm, or even tranquil, and are worth protecting.

With your help we would like to identify quiet, calm and tranquil places in three Singapore places to help develop guidelines for cities to plan and protect such important places.

Data information
      
The research is being conducted by Dr Sarah Payne from Heriot-Watt University, UK.
All data collected is confidential and kept on a secure system. You can provide an email address if you would like to be entered into the voucher draw. Your data will be kept separate from your email address straight away. There will be one voucher winner per city. If you change your mind, you can stop completing the questionnaire at any point.

If you are under 16, please discuss this survey first with a parent before continuing, as written consent will be needed.

Your city
      
Please choose one response for each question below.
Which city do you live in or regularly visit? (choose one)
Why do you know this city well? (choose one)
 

Identifying urban outdoor areas in Pulau Ubin and Sentosa Cove.

Click on a grey box below to identify a quiet, calm, or tranquil place that you visit. The icon will appear on the map. Position the tip of the icon in your identified place by dragging the icon or moving the map. You may need to 'zoom in' on the map first.
You can identify MULTIPLE places of each type or of different types of quiet, calm or tranquil outdoor places.

 
 
 
Don't forget, you can identify multiple Quiet, Calm, or Tranquil places.
 
    
Quiet Places Described in Pulau Ubin and Sentosa Cove
   
Did you identify any Quiet Places in Pulau Ubin and Sentosa Cove?
 
Thinking back on ALL the Quiet Places you have
 just identified , briefly describe why they feel
like Quiet places

Most visited Quiet Place in Brighton and Hove

Remember your MOST often visited Quiet Place you identified.
Thinking about the last 12 months, how often,
on average, have you visited this Quiet Place in
Pulau Ubin and Sentosa Cove?







Click in a circle to show your level of agreement with each word for describing your MOST visited Quiet Place.
 
Strongly DisagreeDisagreeNeutralAgreeStrongly Agree
Calm




Safe




Accessible




Alone




Tranquil




Quiet




Built up




Crowded




Natural




 
Thinking about your time in your MOST visited Quiet Place, how much have you been bothered, disturbed, or annoyed by traffic noise
Not at allSlightlyModeratelyVeryExtremely
Bothered, Disturbed, Annoyed by traffic noise





Calm Places Described in Pulau Ubin and Sentosa Cove

Did you identify any Calm Places in Brighton and Hove? Calm places are the orange icons with the cloud image.
Thinking back on all the Calm Places you have just
 identified in Pulau Ubin and Sentosa Cove (orange icons),
briefly describe why they feel like Calm places
 

About you
 
Despite where you may live, do you identify yourself more as urban or rural?
Rural

Urban

For the next few questions, please show how much you agree with each of the statements:
 
I am easily awakened by noise
Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree
 
 
I get used to most noises without much difficulty
Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree
 
 
I find it hard to relax in a place that is noisy
Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree
 
 
I am good at concentrating no matter what noise is going on around me
Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree
 
 
I get mad at people who make noise that keeps me from falling asleep or getting work done
Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree
 
 
I am sensitive to noise
Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree
 
 
What type of environment do you live in?

Gender

How old are you?

    Final Thoughts
Is there anything you would like to add about urban outdoor quiet, calm, or tranquil places?
How did you find out about this survey? (You can tick multiple options)










If you would like to be entered into the draw for a $15 NTUC voucher
 (one per city) then please enter your email address below.
This information is automatically stored separately from your
responses and will only be used for the purposes of the draw.
Your responses will remain anonymous.
   Thank You
 
Thank you very much for completing this survey.

Please share this survey with others, using the Twitter or Facebook links below.
All the data will be used to identify quiet and calm places within your city and will be presented to local council authorities. The data will help compile guidelines on identifying quiet external places that should be protected within our urban environments. We're also interested in knowing the relationship between quiet, calm, and tranquil areas. Do they differ and which should we be identifying and protecting?
 
This survey is part of Project DeStress. One aim is to raise public and practitioner awareness of the impacts and importance of soundscapes (perceived sounds in a place) on our health in both positive and negative ways. The overall aim is Designing and Engineering Soundscapes To enable Restorative Environments for Sustainable Societies (DeStress).
 
The work is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/R003467/1) and is conducted by Dr Sarah Payne at Heriot-Watt University.
Thank you for your contribution. Please share this survey with others, using the Twitter or Facebook.          




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