Sonic Urbanism for Cities

A Practical Guide for the ReSilence Toolkit and Framework

The practical guide is designed for municipal planners, urban designers, policymakers, and city innovation teams. It introduces a framework to help cities move beyond traditional noise control, encouraging them to treat sound as an essential “invisible infrastructure” used to create more liveable, inclusive, and vibrant urban environments.

The guide utilizes the L-U-C-A process, a four-phase cycle that empowers cities to:

• Listen: Observe and document urban sound environments through soundwalks and recordings.
• Understand: Analyze how people physically and emotionally respond to different soundscapes.
• Compose: Co-design sonic interventions that improve urban sound quality and support public wellbeing.
• Anticipate: Plan for future acoustic environments, such as the soundscapes of electric mobility and ecological urban spaces.

Featuring selected methods and technologies from the ReSilence Toolkit, this guide provides actionable steps for applying “soundscape thinking” to public squares, parks, mobility corridors, and nightlife districts. Download the full guide below.