Urban Forest Acoustics , Voichita Bucur , Springer, New York, 2006. $129.00 (181 pp.). ISBN 3-540-30783-4
If you are interested in a short survey on the effects of trees on sound propagation, then Voichita Bucur’s Urban Forest Acoustics is for you.
Bucur, a senior scientist at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research in Champenoux, covers in great detail the scattering of sound by the forest canopy and other foliage. She presents both laboratory and outdoor data, and her book is the first I have seen that has such information in one place. She summarizes results for a wide variety of trees with and without leaves, especially in summer and winter conditions. The trees she considers include birch, hazel, pine, cypress, eucalyptus, ficus, acacia, and quercus—just to name a few. I was amazed at the details she used in studying the effects of different trees on sound propagation.
The book’s title, however, is somewhat misleading because it suggests that the author will broadly cover noise problems in cities. That is, however, not the case. The text, which has nine chapters, including the introduction, contains fewer than 200 pages; its price tag of $129 is typical for a research book. Six of the chapters can be considered brief reviews of their subjects: noise in urban forests (chapter 2), tree characteristics and acoustic sensors (chapter 3), noise attenuation with plant material (chapter 4), traffic noise abatement (chapter 5), noise abatement in urban and suburban dwellings (chapter 6), and bird and insect noise in urban forests (chapter 7). Chapters 3 and 4 have most of the substantial details and analyses and make up half of the book.
Unfortunately, if readers are interested in studying the effects of ground noise attenuation, such as with solid barriers, they will be shortchanged. Much more material could have been included in those areas. The two chapters on traffic-noise abatement and on noise abatement in urban and suburban dwellings will also leave readers wanting more. I especially would have been happier if additional information had been included on traffic-and dwelling-noise problems in urban areas.
Although Bucur discusses the effects of trees on the propagation of noise, she does not consider other important factors. For example, she omits the propagation of acoustic signals in long narrow streets lined by either multistory structures or skyscrapers, sometimes referred to as “city canyons.” The urban forest is composed of not only plants but also buildings that affect the acoustics of the area. The author is evidently addressing problems more germane to European cities than to American ones. Noise pollution in European cities is different from that in American cities. The designs of European cities—for example, the height of buildings, the shapes of old and modern streets, and the traffic noise produced by motor scooters and smaller cars—give those cities a distinctive noise signature.
Chapter 8 is an introduction to acoustics for fire control in forests, and chapter 9 covers the economics of urban-forest acoustics. Both chapters leave one wanting more information; in particular, additional quantitative details would have made chapter 9 much more useful to researchers who want to try to implement some of the author’s suggestions.
Urban Forest Acoustics is a good start on the subject, but many of Bucur’s discussions are presented either in great detail or no detail at all. Readers who expect to find a lot of information about all of the topics mentioned in the table of contents will be disappointed.
