Abstract
Urban parks are important urban public spaces that guarantee people recreation, create positive emotions and relieve stress. Emerging research has shown that natural soundscapes are associated with restorative landscapes in urban parks. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on the use of physiological indexes to evaluate the effects of natural sounds versus human-based sounds on stress relief. In this study, the three physiological indexes of skin conductance level, heart rate and heart rate variability were collected in Fuzhou West Lake Park with the help of Ergo LAB data platform, and a soundscape perception evaluation questionnaire was used to assess the degree of soundscape perceptions in the sample sites. The differences in the stress relieving effects of different urban park environments were analysed by applying the median test, the Wilcoxon test was applied to analyse the effects of soundscapes and urban park environments on relieving stress, and regression analysis was used to identify the important factors of restorative soundscapes. The results found that urban park environments provide a certain degree of stress relief, but the stress relieving effects of different urban park environments vary and that natural spaces play an important role in relieving stress. Urban park soundscapes are key to restorative environmental design, with natural sounds such as birdsong and stream sound being important factors of restorative soundscapes.
Highlights
The restorative effects of interaction with the natural environments have been extensively documented over the last 30 years since they were reported by Kaplan in 1989 [1]
Restorative indexes of relieving stress include both psychological and physiological aspects, and this study focuses on measuring the effects of soundscapes on relieving stress through physiological indexes
The Wilcoxon test for physiological indexes in the ambient noise and experimental video phases of this study found that all ten urban park environments relieved stress to a certain degree, with significant reductions in LF/HF in urban park environment sample sites S1, S6, S8 and S9, skin conductance level response rate (SCLr) in sample site S2, SCLr, LF/HF in sample site S4, SCLr, LF/HF in sample sites S7 and S10
Summary
The restorative effects of interaction with the natural environments have been extensively documented over the last 30 years since they were reported by Kaplan in 1989 [1]. Previous research has concluded that the quality of soundscapes has significant effects on the environmental experience and relieving stress [5]. Compared to noisy urban environments, urban park environments create a more positive mood, give a sense of comfort, calm and relaxation, increase parasympathetic activity, inhibit sympathetic activity and reduce levels of salivary cortisol etc. These changes in physiological characteristics have been shown in previous studies to be indicative of stress relief [12,13,14]. Most of the current studies have focused on visual perception, with very little research on the combination of visual and auditory perception [15,16], the importance and impact of the urban park soundscapes are gradually being recognized [17]
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