Milosevic, S. 2014. Buller – Hur planers en bullerfri stad?. Kulturgeografiska institutionen, Uppsatser, Uppsala universitet.   This essay is about noise pollution caused by urbanization. The field study takes place in Uppsala and explores their organization of handling problems with noise pollution caused by traffic. Noise pollution has long been neglected as an environmental hazard. Studies show that noise pollution can cause severe health problems such as increased blood pressure. Therefore the EU has made a new directive on how cities should handle noise pollution. The essay also exemplifies how the work with noise pollution is implemented in a residential production of today. I have come to my results by observing the surroundings and interviewing the planning engineer of the new residential buildings on the street Stationsgatan which is close to the Central station in Uppsala, Sweden. I have also interviewed the project manager of the municipality’s action plan for reducing noise pollution which was made due to the EU-directive. My results show that we must reduce our dependence of cars and plan for a soundscape as much as we plan on the visual aspect if we want to reduce the noise pollutions in our cities. Not only will the noise pollution reduce if we reduced the use of private cars but also a lot of other pollutions would decrease.

Denna uppsats har som syfte att studera hur föreställningar om ljud påverkar den fysiska planeringen i städer. För arbetet har åtgärdsprogram mot buller i Malmö och Göteborg analyserats utifrån de två teoretiska fälten Soundscape och Environmental Noise.  Soundscape definieras av människans uppfattning av den akustiska miljön. Detta teoretiska fält hanterar främst ljud som uppskattas av människan vilket är beroende av rumslig- och social kontext. Environmental noise tar utgångspunkt i ljudets negativa effekter på hälsan, vilket studeras genom ljudets fysiskt mätbara värden främst ljudnivå. Resultatet av arbetet visar att det teoretiska fältet soundscape endast kan identifieras i vissa rumsliga kontexter i staden. I parker och rekreationsområden framstår soundscape vara som mest tydligt, detta visa att stärkande åtgärder för uppskattade ljud ska genomföras måste många människor gynnas. Vidare framstår soundscape delvis kunna identifieras i bostadens utomhusmiljö genom åtgärden tyst sida. Det verkar finnas svårigheter att föreslå praktiska lösningar inom soundscape på grund av brist på kunskap och att lösningar ska baseras på platsen kontext. Det teoretiska fältet environmental noise framstår vara närvarande i nästintill alla stadens rumsliga kontexter och abstraktionsnivåer. Detta då kommunerna alltid har ett ansvar att hantera och prioritera hälsorisker. / This bachelor thesis aims to examine how the notions of sound affects the spatial planning of cities. Two cases, one of Malmö and one of Gothenburg will be analyzed through the two theoretical fields Soundscape and Environmental Noise. Soundscape is defined by human perception of the acoustic environment. This theoretical field is mostly dealing with sound that is appreciated and is dependent on spatial- and social context. Environmental noise is based on the negative health effects from noise, which is studied through physical measurable values of sounds. The results of this bachelor thesis show that the theoretical field soundscape can be identified only in certain spatial contexts in the city. Soundscape seems to be most prominent in parks and recreational areas. This implies that enhancing measures for appreciated sounds are only implemented in places where a large number of people will benefit. Furthermore it appears that soundscape is partially identifiable in urban environments in close proximity to dwellings in concept of a quiet side. Due to the lack of knowledge and the fact that solutions linked with soundscape should be based on specific spatial context there appears to be a difficulty for municipalities to take concreate actions associated with this notion of sound. The theoretical field environmental noise appears to exist in most of the city's spatial contexts and levels of abstraction. This is because municipalities always have a responsibility to manage and prioritize health risks.