Advancing soundscape research: translation of perceptual attributes into Brazilian Portuguese

The ISO 12913 series has been widely adopted for managing urban soundscapes, offering technical specifications, protocols, and questionnaires for soundscape characterization based on perceptual attributes. However, the ISO/TS 12913-2:2018 attributes are only available in English, raising concerns about their applicability in non-English-speaking regions. To address this linguistic barrier, the Soundscape Attributes Translation Project (SATP) was established as an international collaboration of researchers to validate the translation of these perceptual attributes into multiple languages, promoting their global use in both academic and practical contexts. This article presents the translation and validation of soundscape attributes into Brazilian Portuguese. The process involved surveys with laypeople and experts to understand the meanings of the original English terms, iterative refinements until a consensus was reached, and listening experiments. Results indicate that the translations almost preserve the quasi-circumplex structure of the original soundscape model, although efforts are needed to ensure consistency and reliability. This study advances the inclusion of Brazilian Portuguese in global soundscape research, enabling its application in diverse cultural and linguistic contexts. The outcomes reinforce the importance of rigorous validation processes in developing universally applicable tools for soundscape assessment.