Hush City App
EXPLORATION & KNOWLEDGE SHARING
The Hush City is a free mobile app that enables people to find and rate quiet places in cities. It has an open-access, web-based map of quiet places that has the potential to guide policies and guidelines for healthier living for citizens.
Short summary of the practice
Hush City is a free, citizen science mobile app, which empowers people to identify and assess quiet areas in cities as to create an open access, web-based map of quiet areas, with the potential of orientating plans and policies for healthier living, in response to issues framed by European environmental policies (e.g. the EC END 49/2002). Launched in 2017 within the context of a pilot study in Berlin.
Using the Hush City app, you can (from the app webpage):
- Crowdsource your favourite quiet areas and share them with the Hush City community;
- Identify and access quiet areas in your city or other cities worldwide, shared by the Hush City users;
- Filter the quiet areas according to their sound levels, descriptors used to tag them, quietness, visual quality and accessibility, as perceived by the users who crowdsourced the quiet areas;
- Share the quiet areas via social media;
- Review your surveys and delete them anytime without justification;
- Become a Hush City Ambassador;
- Give feedback on the Hush City project.
Goal of the practice
The app allows citizens to locate quiet city areas.
Target group
This method is for urban enthusiasts, people seeking quiet areas for reading, meditating, sports or just to be.
Number of participants: Unlimited
Age of participants: Young and Adults, 12+
Materials
- Phone
- Internet access
Method settings
Hush City is now used internationally and available in 5 languages: English, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.Open access Hush City Map.
Duration
Time needed to find or add a quiet place in the map.
Preparation
Without much preparation. One just needs to download the app and read the instruction.
Step by step guide
Download the free Hush City app and install it on your smartphone Go to one of your favorite quiet places Launch the Hush City app and click on the botton “Map the quietness around you”
Record the sound of the quiet place where you are and measure its sound levels* Take a picture of the place where you recorded the sound Answer the questions addressing the environmental quality of this quiet place Share this information with the Hush City community.
Expected output
The resulting map reveals a silent urban landscape which people can enjoy. Please be aware that noise levels measured by the mobile app, may not be entirely accurate, depending on which smartphones are used, weather conditions and other factors.
DOs, DONTs and ethical considerations of the method
DOs :
- Add new space for helping others.
- Refresh/change information if the place become noisy.
DONTs :
- Avoid sharing false information.
Change the method brings to the communities
Our cities are becoming noisier by the hour. Only in Europe, over 125 million people are affected by noise pollution from traffic every year (EEA 2014), and apparently, quietness is becoming a luxury available only to a few of us. By using this free mobile app, you will contribute to making quietness available to all those who appreciate it and you will generate open data, which can be exploited by policy makers and planners to monitor and protect the quiet areas crowdsourced.
Adaptation/Application of the method
Impact of Hush City from the app Webpage:
- Hush City is included in the EC Joint Research Centre Technical Report (Ponti & Craglia 2020) among the European citizen-generated data projects impacting public policy; and in the European Commission staff working document (2020). Best Practices in Citizen Science for Environmental Monitoring.
- As a citizen science analytical tool, Hush City is featured in the WHO/UN-Habitat Sourcebook (Grant et al. 2020) Integrating health in urban and territorial planning.
- Hush City has been adopted by the City Councils of Berlin (2018) and Limerick (2019-present) within the context of the creation of the Quiet Areas Plans. See also: Berlin Senate (2020). Lärmaktionsplan Berlin 2019-2023. Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, Berlin.
- A full list of Press Coverage is available here.
Credit, References, and Resources
Link to the detailed app description with download links – https://opensourcesoundscapes.org/hush-city/
The Hush City Teaser here – what the app can do.Tthe video was made by Limerick City & County Council, with the support of the EPA.
Hush City. A new mobile application to crowdsource and assess “everyday quiet areas” in cities. Conference paper, 2017 – https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317129629
The use of mobile applications in soundscape research: open questions in standardization, Conference paper, 2028 – https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325540750
Photo sources: https://opensourcesoundscapes.org/hush-city/, date: 20.11.2023
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