Hush City

Description

Hush City is a free, citizen science 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. EC END 49/2002).

Launched in 2017 within the context of a pilot study in Berlin, Hush City is now used internationally and available in 5 languages: English, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

Hush City has been adopted by the Municipalities of Berlin (2018) and Limerick (2020-2022) for the creation of the Plans of Quiet Areas.

Using the Hush City app, you can:

• Crowdsource  your favourite quiet areas and share them via the Hush City Map and your social media;
• Identify and access quiet areas mapped by the Hush City users in your city or in other cities worldwide;
• Filter the quiet areas according to their sound levels, perceptual descriptors, level of quietness, visual quality and accessibility, as perceived by the users who crowdsourced the quiet areas;
• Review your personal surveys and delete them anytime without justification;
• Become a Hush City Ambassador;
• Give feedback on the Hush City project.

Aim

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 2020), and apparently, quietness is becoming a luxury available only to a few of us. 

By using Hush City, you can generate open data about the locations and the qualities of the quiet areas, which can be leveraged by policy makers and planners for creating Plans of Quiet Areas in response to a legal requirement set up by the European Environmental Noise Directive (EC END 49/2002).

Further, Hush City can help you to identify, access, map and evaluate everyday quiet areas in your neighbourhoods. You can find places such as small, quiet spots where you can go to escape the city’s chaos, relax, read a book, play with your kids, and have a pleasant conversation.

How to participate

Join the Hush City community. It is simple!

• Download the free Hush City app and install it on your smartphone
• Go to one of your favourite quiet places
• Launch the Hush City app and click on the button “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.
• Or, use the app to find a quiet spot near to you. Go to it and enjoy spending some time there.

* 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.

Equipment

A smartphone or a computer with access to an internet connection