Effects of Sound Source Landscape in Urban Forest Park on Alleviating Mental Stress of Visitors: Evidence from Huolu Mountain Forest Park, Guangzhou

Abstract

Urban Forest parks are indispensable areas in cities and have ecological and social advantages, and the quality of their acoustic landscapes is an important factor influencing visitors’ visiting experience. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the acoustic landscape on psychological stress relief in selected urban forest parks in China. This study used a questionnaire to construct an index system for psychological stress reduction and designed a questionnaire for the perceived impact of stress-reducing acoustic sources with user perception and stress-reducing restoration evaluation as the entry point. The research team conducted field research and online questionnaire survey on the questionnaire.com platform from 1–5 July 2022, in Huolu Mountain Forest Park, an urban forest park in Guangzhou, and collected 266 valid questionnaires. SPSS26.0 was used to analyze the results of the impact of the urban forest park on users’ psychological stress relief. Spearman’s rho correlation analysis and a Kruskal–Wallis nonparametric test were used to reveal the relationship between social, demographic and behavioral factors of tourism and sound source perception, and multiple regression analysis was used to identify the key factors of urban forest park. The results showed that, first, there were significant individual differences and correlations between respondents’ age, education level, visit time and frequency on soundscape perceptions; the older the respondent or the higher the education level, the higher the psychological stress relief evaluation of natural sounds such as birdsong in urban forest parks; the more frequent the visit, the more sensitive the users were to sound source perceptions; and the different visit time periods showed that, when the frequency of the visit was higher, the more sensitive the users were to the sound source. Secondly, natural sounds are important factors for psychological stress relief in soundscape, and natural sounds such as birdsong, cicadas, flowing water, and the sound of breeze blowing leaves have positive benefits and significant contributions to psychological stress relief. Third, the overall restorative evaluation of soundscape perception and the separate evaluation of natural, mechanical, and human-made sounds had significant effects, and the overall restorative evaluation showed that the cumulative contribution value of attractiveness was greater than that of compatibility and consistency. Fourth, soundscape plays a role in psychological stress relief, as evidenced by significant differences in pleasure and arousal levels but not in control.

Water Sustainability Assessment and Spatial and Temporal Variance Analysis - a Case Study of 12 Provincial Administrative Regions in Western China From 2012 to 2022

“…The W1 subsystem mainly reflects the utilization of WR (W1-1) and WR conditions (W1-2); the W2 subsystem mainly describes the environmental pressure of WR (W2-1) and the management level of environmental pollution and prevention (W2-2); the W3 subsystem mainly reflects the water ecological safety W3-1 and biodiversity W3-2; the W4 subsystem mainly reflects the economic dynamics of WR W4-1, economic strength W4-2 and economic scale W4-3. This study draws on the studies of Guo Yanlong et al [18,19] and De O. et al [20] on WRS, combined with the WR Evaluation Guide (SL/T238-1999), using data from 12 provincial administrative regions in western China for 2012-2022. By integrating relevant documentary standards and literature, this study combined entropy weight method and cloud model to construct a comprehensive evaluation model.…”

Identify the significant landscape characteristics for the perceived restorativeness of 8 perceived sensory dimensions in urban green space

“…Walking, running, and other sports are better choices for restoration than just sitting or looking [ 21 ]. The recovery of stress is also related to multiple sensory modalities such as olfaction [ 22 ], audition [ 23 ], and tactile sensation [ 24 ], but the specific impact of visual stimuli remains relatively unclear, particularly regarding the diverse visual forms presented by green spaces and their restorative effects. Further research is needed to investigate this aspect.…”

Impact of rural soundscape on environmental restoration: An empirical study based on the Taohuayuan Scenic Area in Changde, China

“…From the perspective of research area, most of the soundscape restorative research now is in public spaces such as urban parks, forest parks, college campuses, etc., and there are fewer researches involving rural tourist destinations. In addition, scholars have already confirmed that soundscape has restorative functions [72][73][74], but there is a lack of research on its influence mechanism with environmental restorative effects. Therefore, in this study, the Taohuayuan Scenic Area in Changde City, Hunan Province was selected as a case study for empirical analysis, with the main purpose of exploring the influence mechanism of Rural Soundscape Perception on Environmental Restoration Perception by constructing a structural equation model, and introducing the two affective variables of tourism nostalgia and place attachment, to provide new research perspectives for the theoretical study of Rural Soundscape Perception, and at the same time, to provide theoretical basis for the design and creation of soundscape in rural tourism destinations and decision-making support.…”