Acoustical environment of the medieval centre of Cáceres (Spain)

Cáceres (Extremadura, Spain) is a medium-sized city located in the west of Spain with an old part that has been considered a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1986 and is the third-best preserved monument in Europe. The main aim of this work was to study the acoustics of this area of the city, both spatially and temporally and also the perception of noise by its citizens. The sound results of this study have been compared with those measured in other neighborhood streets of Cáceres city and other cities of the region (Badajoz and Zafra). Along with the present work, a careful strategy based mainly on short measurements was used. The results show that the old part of Cáceres is a quiet area, though with some moderately intense sound events; indeed, 95% of the measurements presented Leq values lower than 65 dBA during the day, and 79.4% presented Leq values lower than 55 dBA at night. The sound levels measured were similar to those measured in the neighborhood streets of a small town (Zafra). A sociological study carried out allowing us to find some significant relationships among: (i) annoyance and measured sound levels and (ii) measured sound levels and the way residents perceive noise distribution both spatially and temporally.