Restorative Effects of Soundscape Perception: A Case of Yan Zhenqing Park in Shandong Province, China
Zekun Shang1, Mohd Yazid Mohd Yunos1*, Mohd Nazri Saidon1, Mohd Amirul Hussain2, Qianda Zhuang1, Ismail Said3
1 Faculty of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
2 Fakulti Teknikal dan Vokasional, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, 35900 Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia
3Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected] Accepted: 15 April 2023 | Published: 30 April 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/ajact.2023.5.1.3
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Abstract: Soundscape is an important part of landscape perception. As an important environmental element of creating the whole space of the city Acoustic Environment, it has been paid more and more attention to and studied gradually. With the improvement of urbanization and living conditions in China, people's mental health problems are gradually increasing. However, the studies on the restoration of soundscape consider how the perceived soundscape affects an individual’s mental health were scarce. Yan Zhenqing Park is a product of urbanization and a typical urban park, mental health and sound issues highlighted among residents near parks. The aim of this study was to improve Yan Zhenqing Park environment toward restoration of soundscape. Therefore, Yan Zhenqing Park was selected as the research case through field investigation, listening to a single sound source on the spot and designing a questionnaire. All data were collected by using the method of probability-sampling which involved questionnaires distributed to 370 of respondents. Using quantitative analysis methods to explore the relationship between properties and attributes of urban park stimulating restoration. The results show that there was a significant relationship between frequency, loudness, preference of sound, people prefer natural sounds and artificial sounds can have a negative impact on people's mental health. Research findings provide guidance for environment construction and add value to people’s health and quality of life and well-being.
Keywords: natural sound; mental health; soundscape
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1. Introduction
Urban Park is an important urban open space for people’s leisure and entertainment, acting as a mediator between man and nature in the city, in order to improve the quality of urban parks and people’s daily life, it is important to understand the influencing factors and the relationship between them (Miller, 2008; Sadeghian & Vardanyan, 2013). According to the BLUE BOOK OF CHINA’S SOCIETY (2021) by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing on December 21,2020, the urbanization level has crossed the 60% threshold and the proportion of urban employed population has reached 57.1%. By 2025, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences expects China’s urbanization rate to reach 65.5 percent (Li et al., 2021) and more than two thirds of the world's people will live in urban areas (Ritchie & Roser, 2018). We can see that the current process of urbanization is still rapid, the future people live in the main places are concentrated in urban areas. With the acceleration of the urbanization process, urban
residents are increasingly far away from the natural environment, and with the fast-paced life and busy studies and work, urban residents are burdened with great mental pressure, mental health problems are more common (Nielsen & Hansen, 2007). Nearly 90% of China’s cities are now in a state of “sub-health”, with more and more cities suffering from “urban disease”
(Institute of Economics Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 2019). Many high-quality, restorative environments are no longer suitable for residents of high-density cities (Van den Berg et al., 2007). Exposure to nature may be beneficial to human health (Jimenez et al., 2021), the restoration potential of the area can be enhanced through proper selection and configuration of landscape types, landscape elements and landscape components (Deng et al., 2020).
In 1929, Finnish geographer Grano put forward the concept of soundscape, which was initially focused on the listener-centered sound environment (Grano, 1929), Schafer (1993) developed this theory and proposed a soundscape concept emphasizing music and environmental protection. China lacks research on soundscape restoration and retention of good sound (Qiu
& Zhang, 2021). The research of environmental psychology shows that if the environment has certain positive characteristics, it can restore people’s attention, which is beneficial to people from psychological fatigue and positive promotion (R. Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989; S. Kaplan, 1995). When an individual is in a restorative environment, his mental state, physiological level, behavior and cognitive function will automatically undergo positive adjustment and restoration, thus relieving psychological pressure, generating positive emotions, and restoring directional attention, enhance social adaptability and so on (Baum et al., 2020; Hartig & Staats, 2003).
The natural sound in urban park play an important role on the development of human brain and mental health, few research on sound preference and human health, and the research results have important guiding significance for ecosystem services-informed landscape planning (Chen et al., 2022). A key issue is understanding how the perceived sound affects an individual’s mental health. Lingcheng district of Dezhou city is a densely populated area, with the accelerated pace of life, the mental stress of residents near Yan Zhenqing Park has increased, and mental health problems need to be resolved urgently, residents near Yan Zhenqing Park reported that the sound quality needs to be improved urgently. Four characteristics of attention restoration theory as a generalization of park users' perception of restorative sound attributes after hearing the sound, based on this, this paper explores the restorative effects of soundscape in Yan Zhenqing Park, it is beneficial to promote the development of ecosystem services-informed landscape planning (Chen et al., 2022). To address this objective, we set out the following research question of” How can planners improve the sound environment in urban park to reduce park users’ mental stress?”
The research questions are as follow:
i. What are the properties of positive sounds found in urban park to reduce stress?
ii. What is the relationship between properties and attributes of urban park stimulating restoration?
iii. How can these results be applied to improve the sound environment in urban park to reduce park users’ mental stress?
2. Research method
2.1 Research area
Yan Zhenqing park was selected as the study sites in this study which was located in the Lingcheng district of Dezhou city, Shandong province, China (Figure 1). Yan Zhenqing park is located east of Yancheng Street in Lingcheng District, west of government North Street, south of Park South Road, North of Ge Jin River, covering 113 acres, its planning and construction is designed to commemorate Yan Zhenqing. Yan Zhenqing park is a scenic spots in Lingcheng district, with the theme of “Moxiang Qianqiu”and the landscape structure of “One axis, two rings, three districts and four scenic spots”. Children’s play area, waterfront tourism area, Tang city wall tourism area, Yan Zhenqing memorial area and old people’s activity area are connected in series. Yan Zhenqing park is built with the cultural characteristics of Tang Dynasty, which is a combination of natural scenery and cultural landscape. Yan Zhenqing is a park with rich sound, scenery, and environment types. Located in densely populated areas, it is an ideal location for acoustic landscape research.
Figure 1: Location of the Yan Zhenqing Park in Shandong Province, China
2.2 Data collection and analysis
Quantitative research is rarely used in the field of soundscape restoration(Jahani et al., 2021), this study used a quantitative research approach to investigate the properties of soundscapes.
The pilot study was done to collect preliminary information about Yan Zhenqing park. The site observations were carried out on weekdays and weekend during two sessions which took place in the morning (8.00a.m. to 11.00a.m.) and evening (4.00p.m. to 7.00p.m.) in the end of October 2022, because the flow of people in the park is relatively large during these two time periods and done to determine sound resource survey sites, park overview regarding the contextual, park’s location, geography, topography, issues related to the Yan Zhenqing park.
A probability-sampling was carried out since there are various users in the park. The sample size was determined from the Krejcie and Morgan Table which stated 370 of samples needed for 13476 population in the five communities near Yan Zhenqing park(Krejcie & Morgan, 1970). The sampling location for research is in the entrance and exit of the park, functional area, entertainment area, leisure area, sports area and other park users gathering areas and tourist spots, all of which are highly used spaces (Figure 2,Table 1).
Figure 2: Location distribution of sampling points
Table 1: Location distribution of sampling points
Measuring point Space type Environmental features Activities and Facilities
S1 Open space
East Gate, near the main road, has a lot of traffic, especially during commuting hours, and there are
usually old people resting
Transition
S2 Open space
Sports square1, The central space is spacious and open, with abundant leisure and sports facilities and little
greening.
Exercise, rest
S3 semi-open space
The hills, The shaded area has leisure facilities such as walking trails,
beaches, and seats
Rest, transition S4 Open space Sports square2, mainly hard
pavement, few trees Exercise, comminicate, study
S5 semi-open space
Wen Boyuan Museum, composed of trees, shrubs, grass and flower beds, there are leisure facilities such as
walking trails and seats
Study, comminicate, rest
S6 Open space Pavilion, near the lake, rich in plant
landscape resources Rest, transition S7 semi-open space Sports square3, hard pavement, few
trees Exercise, rest
S8 semi-open space Footpath, mainly trees, lawns and
flower beds Transition
S9 Open space
Wen Boyuan Museum backdoor, there are leisure facilities such as
lawns, flower beds and seats
Rest
S10 Open space Central Park, By the lake, on the
central axis of the park Exercise, rest
These single sound sources include natural sound and artificial sound, it is further divided into geophysical, biological, human, traffic and mechanical sound(Liu et al., 2014).
Table 2: Type of individual sound
Source Type Specific categories A single sound source
Natural sound Geophysical sound Water sound、tree rustling Biological sound Birdsong、dog bark、chirp
Artificial sound
Human sound Children shouting 、footsteps Traffic sound Electric bicycle、street traffic Mechanical sound Hay mower noise、facility noise、
construction noise
The soundscape parameters applicable to the evaluation of soundscape perception are perceived occurrences (POS), perceived loudness (PLS) and perceived preference (PRE)(Liu et al., 2014). All of them adopted the Likert 5 scale and set a score of 1-5 to represent the
“never, occasionally, moderate, frequent, and ever-present” of the perceived frequency, and the “extremely weak, weak, moderate, strong, and extremely strong” of the perceived loudness, perceived preference of “very dislike, dislike, moderate, like, very like”. Kaplan argues that the soft beauty of nature is often aesthetically pleasing, providing restorative and serious reflection opportunities for voluntary attention enabling a restorative experience, it believes that the environment in which attention recovers from fatigue should have the following four characteristics: fascination、being away、extent and compatibility (R. Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989). According to the four characteristics of attention restoration theory, we need to find a restorative sound that satisfies these four attributes, a questionnaire was designed to investigate the mental recovery of park users after hearing the sound in the landscape. Payne (2013) constructed Perceived Restorativeness Soundscape Scale (PRSS). To compress the homogeneous information, the attributes of the restorative sound are summarized, and the PRSS is slightly modified, and 4 dimensions (attribute category) are retained, with two items in each dimension. The items were evaluated with a seven-point Likert scale from 1‘disagree strongly’ to 2‘agree strongly’ (Payne & Guastavino, 2018). Participating evaluators scored based on their own direct experience.
Table 3: Dimensions and items applied to evaluate perceived restorativeness of urban park soundscape Dimension (Attribute
category) Attribute Item
Fascination
Curiosity The soundscape in the park awakens my curiosity.
Interest Following what is going on in this soundscape really holds my interest.
Being-away Break Spending time in this soundscape gives me a break from my day- to-day routine.
Refuge This soundscape is a refuge for me from unwanted distractions.
Compatibility Adapt I rapidly adapt to this soundscape in the park Fit Being in this soundscape fits with my personal inclinations.
Extent Limitless It seems like the extent of this soundscape is limitless.
Spacious This soundscape in the park feels very spacious.
Correlation analysis analyzes multiple variables that may have correlations to measure the degree of correlation or closeness between variables. Pearson correlation analysis were used to explore the relationship between properties and attributes of urban park stimulating. All data collected is analyzed by SPSS 24.0.
3. Research method
3.1 The properties of perceived sound
A total of 375 questionnaires were collected in this study, 5 invalid questionnaires were excluded, and a total of 370 questionnaires were analyzed for data.
Figure 3: Analysis of the mean value of participants' perception of different sound source preferences
Figure 4: The proportion of different soundscape types
From the Figure 3 and Figure 4, we can see that birdsong、chirp、dog barking、water sound and tree rustling are the sound preferred by park users (above three), compared with artificial sound (human sound, traffic sound and mechanical sound), natural sound perception accounts for nearly half of it(42%). Among them, biological sound and mechanical sound each account for a quarter of the total sound source perception; The perception ratio of traffic sound、
geophysical sound and human sound is the same, the more equal to 17%.
Table 4: Correlation analysis among soundscape parameters POS, PLS and PRE
Sound source PLS PRE PRE
POS Birdsong 0.477** 0.446** PLS Birdsong 0.545**
Chirp 0.640** 0.580** Chirp 0.669**
Dog barking 0.488** 0.511** Dog barking 0.443**
Water sound 0.501** 0.521** Water sound 0.491**
Tree rustling 0.485** 0.516** Tree rustling 0.523**
Bicycle riding 0.691** -0.776** Bicycle riding -0.570**
Street traffic 0.509** -0.556** Street traffic -0.507**
Hay mower noise 0.466** -0.613** Hay mower noise -0.515**
Construction noise 0.484** -0.599** Construction noise -0.567**
Facility noise 0.517** -0.589** Facility noise -0.500**
Footsteps 0.467** -0.439** Footsteps -0.532**
Children shouting 0.566** 0.468** Children shouting 0.607**
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Import data into SPSS for correlation analysis of each sound source POS, PLS, PRE. The results show that there is a significant positive correlation between POS, PLS, and PRE of all natural sounds and children shouting; Significant correlation between POS and PLS in artificial sound except children shouting; Significant negative correlation between POS, PLS and PRE in artificial sound.
Table 5: Correlation analysis among soundscape parameters and four attributes of restorative sound
Sound source Fascination Compatibility Being away Extent
POS Birdsong 0.067 0.010 0.031 -0.024
Chirp 0.087 0.026 0.036 -0.072
Dog barking 0.115* 0.033 0.068 -0.042
Water sound 0.017 0.058 -0.016 0.006
Tree rustling 0.069 0.086 0.024 -0.019
Bicycle riding -0.112* -0.027 -0.062 0.068
Street traffic -0.051 -0.050 0.019 0.004
Hay mower noise -.043 0.019 -0.049 0.039
Construction
noise -0.062 0 -0.071 0.056
Facility noise -0.145** 0.008 -0.096 0.082
Footsteps -0.014 0.015 -0.033 -0.002
Children shouting -0.082 0.030 -0.044 .036
PLS Birdsong 0.104* 0.044 0.121* -0.098
Chirp 0.106* 0.029 0.083 -0.099
Dog barking 0.065 0.045 0.025 -0.055
Water sound 0.097 0.031 0.035 -0.060
Tree rustling 0.057 0.001 0.028 -0.026
Bicycle riding -0.105* -0.067 -0.029 0.051
Street traffic -0.130* 0.008 -0.109* 0.089
Hay mower noise -.089 .045 -.049 0.137**
Construction
noise -0.076 -0.017 -0.037 0.046
Facility noise -0.046 -0.022 0.001 0.062
Footsteps -0.113* -0.012 -0.088 0.078
Children shouting -0.069 -0.027 -0.025 0.046
PRE Birdsong 0.047 0.021 -0.023 0.021
Chirp 0.127* -0.039 0.013 -0.063
Dog barking 0.056 -0.047 0.089 -0.101
Water sound 0.100 -0.048 0.083 -0.094
Tree rustling 0.260** -0.127 0.213**
- 0.245**
Bicycle riding 0.080 0.009 0.049 -0.062
Street traffic 0.137** -0.043 0.097 -0.083
Hay mower noise 0.130* 0.026 .064 -.056
Construction
noise 0.120* 0.025 0.114** -0.09
Facility noise 0.109* -0.035 0.068 -0.055
Footsteps 0.086 -0.001 0.001 -0.026
Children shouting -0.170** -0.008 -0.107* 0.093
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Correlations between perception parameters and attributes of the twelve sounds and are shown inTable 5. In terms of POS, dog barking is significantly associated with fascination, bicycle riding and facility noise are significantly negatively correlated with fascination; PLS of birdsong and chirp are significantly associated with fascination, bicycle riding、street traffic and footsteps are significantly negatively correlated with fascination, birdsong is significantly associated with being away and street traffic is significantly negatively correlated with being away, hay mower noise is significantly associated with extent; PRE of chirp、tree rustling、 street traffic、hay mower noise、construction noise、facility noise are significantly associated with fascination, children shouting is significantly negatively correlated with fascination and being away, tree rustling and construction noise are significantly correlated with being away, tree rustling is significantly negatively correlated with extent.
4. Discussion
In this section, the research questions in the introduction and their implications based on the results are discussed.
4.1 What are the properties of positive sounds found in urban park to reduce stress?
Property means tangible characteristics in the landscape, that is objective. In this research, the property is the perceived individual sound in the landscape. Natural sounds are considered positive sounds and artificial sounds are considered negative(Kogan et al., 2021). From perceived preference sound investigation, we can get natural sound is the sound preferred by park users. In terms of the proportion of soundscape perception, there are more artificial sounds in the environment than natural sound, especially the perception of geophysical sounds should be increased and proposing a plan to reduce the impact of mechanical sound.
4.2 What is the relationship between properties and attributes of urban park stimulating restoration?
Attribute means intangible characteristics when people perceive the properties of an object, that is subjective, is the feeling of park users. Although the four characteristics of attention
restoration theory are prerequisites for research, these four characteristics can also be used as a final summary of the attributes of restorative sound. During the investigation, we learned that the barking of dogs symbolizes vitality. The amount of dog barking has a positive effect on people's mental health. Many families keep dogs as pets, which will give people a sense of home and life. Overall, the frequency and loudness of some artificial sound negatively affects mental health, frequency of biological sound positively affects mental health (Jimenez et al., 2021). Although the artificial sound is a sound that people hate, except for a few individual sounds near Yan Zhenqing Park, it basically has no major impact on people's mental health.
4.3 How can these results be applied to improve the sound environment in urban park to reduce park users’ mental stress?
Based on the research on the above two questions, here are some suggestions to improve the quality of soundscape in Yan Zhenqing Park. Yan Zhenqing Park is full of still water, and the sound of water inside comes from the sound of water pipes irrigating green plants. The manager can improve the terrain to increase the sound of running water or create a new miniature waterfall in the right place. Increase the number of green plants, especially at the gates and other places close to the road where there is a lot of traffic, to reduce the interference of noise loudness. At the same time, the increase in green plants can promote the release of negative oxygen ions, which is beneficial to the human body. Cultivating the small ecosystem in the park can promote material exchange and energy flow between different populations of organisms through measures such as fertilization and artificial transformation and enrich the number of species to improve the natural sound quality. The control of noise is to cut off its transmission source or transmission medium. The park is weeded several times a year. The noise of the hay mower has little impact on the acoustic environment of the park except for the few days of pruning. If the manager wants to improve it, he can increase the labor cost for manual weeding and give up the use of mechanical equipment. Facility noise comes from blood donation vehicles, air conditioners in nearby residences, the blood donation vehicle can be moved away from the gate and go to a place with few park users or enter the park for outdoor blood collection. Air conditioning noise and traffic noise can be reduced by measures such as building satellite cities, building isolation belts and isolation walls on roads, increasing underground transportation networks, and strengthening urban greening. Residents with high mental stress can raise small animals to relieve stress if conditions permit.
5. Conclusion
This paper explores how the perceived sound affects an individual’s mental health, the relationship between sound preference and mental health was further analyzed using a quantitative research approach using four characteristics of attention restoration theory, quantifying park user-perceived sound and sound healing in urban parks for a deeper, more precise understanding of the relationship between sound and mental health. This study concludes that people prefer natural sounds and dislike artificial sounds. This conclusion is in line with the attempts of ordinary people. The loudness, frequency and preference of each sound in the urban park environment are significantly correlated. In park user perception, the proportion of artificial sound in the environment is relatively high, especially the sound of mechanical sound, and the proportion of geophysical sound in natural sound is relatively small.
The loudness and frequency of some artificial sounds can have a negative impact on people's mental health, and noise management is also the most frequently reported issue by park users.
Park users are generally satisfied with the acoustic environment of Yan Zhenqing Park. The limitation of this paper is that the number of sound sources and parks investigated is limited, and no restorative soundscape research of different environmental types has been conducted.
Qualitative research can be used to collect the recovery attributes of park users after hearing the sound, and then form a new soundscape restoration theory. This article uses the four characteristics of the attention restoration theory as a simple example of the inductive attribute category, which is not the focus of this article. We hope that in-depth research in this field can be done in the future.
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