Perception of urban park soundscape

Abstract

A number of studies have been initiated to explore how to improve the soundscape quality in urban parks. However, good soundscape quality in parks cannot be provided without a thorough understanding of the complex relationships among sound, environment, and individuals. As acoustic comfort is considered to be an important outcome of soundscape quality, this study investigates the relative impacts of the factors influencing acoustic comfort evaluation by formulating a multivariate ordered logit model. This study also explores the inter-relationships among acoustic comfort evaluation, acceptability of the environment, and preference to stay in a park using a path model. A total of 595 valid responses were obtained from interview surveys administered in four parks in Hong Kong while objective sound measurements were carried out at the survey spots concurrently. The findings unveil that acoustic comfort evaluation, besides visual comfort evaluation of landscape, also plays an important role on users' acceptability of the urban park environment. Compared with all the studied acoustic related factors, acoustic comfort evaluation serves as a better proxy for park users' preference to stay in urban parks. Hearing the breeze will significantly increase the likelihood of individuals in giving high acoustic comfort evaluation. Conversely, hearing the sounds from heavy vehicles or sounds from bikes will significantly reduce the likelihood in giving a high acoustic evaluation.

Interactions between landscape elements and tranquility evaluation based on eye tracking experiments

“…While a number of useful conclusions have been made regarding the audiovisual environment of rural landscapes, [6][7][8][9][10][11] there is still a lack of studies exploring the visual attention of rural landscapes in tranquility evaluations while considering different sounds. In this research, therefore, the visual attention of landscapes in tranquility evaluations with and without sound stimuli is examined by carrying out eye tracking experiments using Tobii T60XL Eye Tracking equipment-an objective recorder of human eye movement characteristics when dealing with visual information, based on landscape field pictures and sounds collected from typical villages in China, which are undergoing rapid urbanization.…”

Experience sampling: Assessing urban soundscapes using in-situ participatory methods

“…More significantly age plays a greater role in sound perception. The same study showed that younger people (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17) year olds) are less tolerant of sounds relating to nature whereas older people are more likely to prefer soundscapes where natural sounds occur. In a similar study by the same authors [9], cultural background and environmental experience play an important role in people's judgement of sound preference.…”

“…It is widely regarded that tranquil areas and open public spaces can lead to comfort and can make people perceivably sense a quieter environment whereby to provide a comfortable acoustic environment the background level must be reduced in open urban spaces [16,17]. Furthermore, the density of urban spaces can influence soundscape perception in a negative way [8].…”

Urban green spaces′ effectiveness as a psychological buffer for the negative health impact of noise pollution: A systematic review

“…[14] Some of them investigated the different types of vegetation that helped attenuate noise exposure, [15] while others focused on the phenomenon of "soundscape." [16][17][18][19] The ultimate goal of noise control is to promote relaxation, satisfaction and well-being in urban residents. [9] As noise reduction on acoustical level greatly depends on the characteristics of vegetation and the design of urban green spaces the exploitation of the psychological role of vegetation as a noise buffer is much preferable.…”