Audio-visual interaction and visitor characteristics affect perceived soundscape restorativeness: Case study in five parks in China

authored by

Xuan Guo, Jiang Liu, Christian Albert, Xin-Chen Hong

Abstract

The capacity of urban parks to contribute to soundscape restorativeness, understood here as contributions to people's recovery from attentional fatigue and reflection on life issues, is receiving increased interest in research and policy. However, scientific understanding of the influential mechanism of perceived soundscape restorativeness is still not clear. This paper aims to explore the effects of audio-visual interaction on perceived soundscape restorativeness (PSR) of urban parks, considering visitors of different social and demographic characteristics. The research design comprises a survey of 419 visitors to five urban parks in Fuzhou, China, general structure equation modeling, and multi-group model analysis. The results show a substantial dependence of visitors’ PSR values on respective perceptions of soundscape pleasantness and eventfulness, especially soundscape pleasantness. Visual landscape characteristics showed mediating effects on the influence of soundscape pleasantness and eventfulness on the perceived soundscape restorativeness (19.3 % and 28.3 % of the total effect, respectively). Age was the most influential social and demographic characteristic affecting the PSR, followed by gender, while occupation and educational background showed only limited effects. Future development of urban parks should strongly integrate soundscape design considerations to enhance positive PSR effects for visitors.

External Organisation(s)

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Type

Article

Journal

Urban Forestry and Urban Greening

Volume

77

ISSN

1618-8667

Publication date

11.2022

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Forestry, Soil Science, Ecology

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127738 (Access: Closed)