Factors influencing the harmonious degree of soundscapes in urban forests: A comparison of broad-leaved and coniferous forests

Abstract

This study analyzed the relationship between the physical quantity of soundscape and the psychological quantity for humans in different urban forest spaces based on the soundscape harmonious degree and the physical index found in broad-leaved and coniferous forest spaces. Three soundscape parameters were conceived: the soundscape harmonious degree (SHD), total harmonious degree of soundscape (THDS), and equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level (LAeq). These were used to analyze the relationship between objective and subjective soundscapes in urban forests and structured according to the subjective and objective transformation model of soundscape harmonious degree in urban forests. Results suggest that the distributions of biophony and anthrophony evaluation scores in a coniferous forest are more concentrated than in a broad-leaved forest, while the distribution trend of geophony is the opposite. This study found three stages of coordinated soundscape perception, both in broad-leaved and coniferous forests, including: a reduction in difference, a stationary difference, and an increase in difference. The law of psychophysics can be applied to soundscape harmonious degree and LAeq in broad-leaved and coniferous forests. Overall, the results revealed that although there are differences in soundscape harmonious degree between the geophony, biophony and anthrophony in forests, these soundscapes exhibit a pattern when their soundscape harmonious degree is simultaneously analyzed in an ordered sequence of LAeq.