Acoustical Environment Studies in the Modern Urban University Campuses

The quality of the acoustic environments at Xi'an Jiatong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) and Soochow University (Dushuhu Campus, SUDC) in Suzhou City were investigated in the present work through real-time noise level measurements and questionnaire surveys. Before commencing the measurements and surveys, these two campuses' sound sources were summarized and classified into four categories through on-site observation: human-made, machinery, living creatures, and natural physical sounds. For the zones near the main traffic road, with a high volume of crowds and surrounded by a park, sound from road vehicles, humans talking, and birds/insects were selected by the interviewees as the major sound sources, respectively. Only zone 3 (near to a park) at XJTLU could be classified as A zone (noise level < 55 dBA) with an excellent quality acoustical environment. All other zones had either good or average quality acoustical environments, except zone 1 (near to main traffic road) at XJTLU, with a fair-quality acoustical environment.