## 2 Methods
### Participation Campaign  
The participants in the study were people staying in the 10 analysis units in Bilbao when the soundscape study was conducted. Data collection was carried out during the periods when the public space is most typically used by the general public. This is either in the evening (Plaza Nueva and Paseo del Arenal), in the morning between 11:00 and 13:30, or in the afternoon between 17:00 and 19:30. The observations were made in autumn (October to December), with the exception of the studies in Plaza General Latorre, which took place in spring (May). In each place, there were one or two interviewers who contacted the users and asked them to participate.  
The participants are users of the urban spaces analysed who agreed to take part in our research projects voluntarily by responding to the questionnaire after having been informed in accordance with the procedures established by the current laws in Spain and the Basque Country on personal information protection and statistical confidentiality. The participants were informed during the stage of information collection by the person who administered the questionnaire and in informational notes within the questionnaire itself. Consent is regarded as being implicit as soon as the interviewee agrees to take part by responding to the questionnaire.  
In total, 534 evaluations were made by the users of the places addressed. To facilitate the data processing and analysis, each participant was assigned the acoustic measurement that corresponded to the 10-min period that most closely matched the time when they were filling out their questionnaire. This resulted in 406 valid cases containing perception and acoustic data. In each place between 30 and 60 evaluations were completed (Table 2).  
Social and demographic differences were observed between the people considering each of the ten spaces. There were significant differences with regard to sex (\(\chi^{2}=21.406\); \(df=9\); \(p<0.05\)) educational level (\(\chi^{2}=58.804\); \(df=36\); \(p<0.05\)), and working situation (\(\chi^{2}=93.407\); \(df=45\); \(p<0.001\)), as shown in Table 2.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Areas** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Paseo Arenal**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Plaza Nueva**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**PL L**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**PL SPD**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**PL GLT**} & & & \\ \hline
**Space** & **(1.1)** & **(1.2)** & **(1.3)** & **(2.1)** & **(2.2)** & **(2.3)** & **(3.1)** & **(4.1)** & **(5.1)** & **(5.2)** & **Total** & **Differences** \\ \hline
**No. of samples** & **37** & **34** & **44** & **32** & **31** & **42** & **54** & **31** & **44** & **57** & **406** & \\ \hline Female & 75.7 & 44.1 & 61.4 & 68.8 & 74.2 & 59.5 & 63.0 & 35.5 & 50.0 & 64.9 & 75.7 & \(p<0.05\) \\ Living in Bilbao & 78.4 & 85.3 & 77.3 & 71.9 & 74.2 & 83.3 & 88.9 & 93.5 & 10.0 & 91.1 & 78.4 & \(p<0.01\) \\ Secondary studies & 29.7 & 44.1 & 38.6 & 40.6 & 38.7 & 40.5 & 44.4 & 29.0 & 38.6 & 35.1 & 29.7 & No significant \\ University studies & 54.1 & 33.3 & 45.5 & 56.3 & 45.2 & 57.1 & 24.1 & 45.2 & 40.9 & 33.3 & 54.1 & \(p<0.05\) \\ Employed & 75.7 & 41.2 & 56.8 & 65.6 & 54.8 & 64.3 & 50.0 & 61.3 & 45.5 & 33.3 & 75.7 & \(p>0.001\) \\ Unemployed & 13.5 & 8.8 & 9.1 & 6.3 & 19.4 & 9.5 & 11.1 & 12.9 & 25.0 & 14.0 & 13.5 & No significant \\ \hline Paseo del Arenal & (1.1) & Playground: & (1.2) Trees: & (1.3) Walkway, Plaza Nueva: & (2.1) Areades; & (2.2) Centre; \\ (2.3) Terraces. Plaza Levante: (3.1) Square. Plaza San Pedro Deusto: (4.1) Plane trees. Plaza General Latorre: & (5.1) before renovation, in 2012; (5.2) after renovation, in 2014. & & & & & & & \\ \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Characteristics of the participants in the ten places studied in Bilbao (in terms of percentage).