ConclusionsRelying solely on visual representations of environments fordesign, planning and evaluation does not sufficiently simulate ourexperience of the world. In this study the contribution of soundto the perception of 3D landscape visualizations was assessed in alaboratory and online experiment. There is a clear opportunity toincrease the authenticity of landscape experience when using 3Dlandscape visualisations by incorporating sound asit significantlyalters perception of realism and preference. Eye level Google Earthvisualizations receive low realism ratings and aural–visual data col-lected via a web-based survey was comparable to data collectedin the laboratory.Realism and preference vary primarily as a func-tion of aural–visual congruency (e.g. the more congruent the visuallandscape element was with the sound the higher the realism andpreference was). These findings suggest that coupling the appro-priate sound with a corresponding visualization can be an effectiveway to more accurately simulate environmental experience whenusing 3D landscape visualization