Abstract: Methods and system are described for monitoring an environment. Acoustic data collected from microphones distributed within the environment are received. Sound sources are identified from the received acoustic data as generative of sound detected by the microphones. An acoustic scene of the environment is characterized by application of acoustic-scene characterization rules to the received acoustic data. The acoustic scene of the environment is identified as anomalous according to parameter values deviant from a set of parameter values defining nonanomalous acoustic scenes. A remedial response to the environment is initiated in response to identifying the acoustic scene of the environment as anomalous.