The aim of the present work is to understand how the use of the notion of soundscapes can help in conceiving ambient sound environments in cities. From an overview of recent studies concerned with assessments of sound phenomena in everyday-life situations, the relevance of the soundscape concept is discussed as structuring the categorical space of sounds in cities. Urban planners have been interviewed concerning the soundscape concept in relation to urban projects. This allows comparisons between acousticians', city-users' and planners' categorizations of urban soundscapes, and suggests that a simple decrease of noise level or the elimination of noises is insufficient to account for urban environment improvement.