Abstract
Several studies have proven that soundscape in blue space is conducive to human health and well-being, but few studies have explored which blue space characteristics would contribute to a better soundscape and visiting experience. Therefore, an on-site questionnaire investigation was conducted at two artificial lakes in Xi’an, China. The eight Perceived Sensory Dimensions (PSDs) as a landscape assessment tool were applied to identify the characteristics of artificial lake space in urban parks. The results showed that (1) In artificial lake space, overall environment and soundscape reached a very satisfactory level in general, while the respondents’ perceived level of overall restorativeness and soundscape restorativeness as just medium, which indicated that the quality of artificial lake space needs to be improved. (2) According to people’s perceptions, artificial lake spaces had the most obvious characteristics of prospect, social and space; serene and nature were medium; refuge, rich in species, and culture were the least. (3) The eight PSDs of artificial lake space, except for social, were positively correlated with soundscape satisfaction, overall satisfaction, soundscape restorativeness, and overall restorativeness. Moreover, among them, serene was the most significant characteristic in artificial lake space. These findings could be instructive to the design of urban parks with artificial lakes for improving users’ visiting satisfaction and restorativeness.
Highlights
Blue space, as all visible surface waters in space, includes the marine environment and fresh water such as rivers, lakes, seas, and fountains (Völker and Kistemann, 2011; Foley and Kistemann, 2015; Grellier et al, 2017)
It can be concluded that soundscape satisfaction and overall satisfaction in an artificial lake space were relatively higher according to the approximate median score of 4
The median score of soundscape restorativeness and overall restorativeness were in the range of 3–4, indicating a medium to good level, which was lower than soundscape and overall satisfaction, with a median of 4, indicating a very good level
Summary
As all visible surface waters in space, includes the marine environment and fresh water such as rivers, lakes, seas, and fountains (Völker and Kistemann, 2011; Foley and Kistemann, 2015; Grellier et al, 2017). For inland areas with few natural freshwater resources, the urban blue space is mainly dominated by artificial lake space with certain greenery, which is of great importance for urban inhabitants (Jarvis et al, 2020). Previous studies have claimed the importance of blue space, which is reflected in the ecological environment and in people’s physical (Gidlow et al, 2016; Memari et al, 2017) and psychological health (Pasanen et al, 2019; Pearson et al, 2019). Artificial lakes, as an important type of blue space in urban parks, is closely related to people’s life and health interests, but few studies have focused on lakes in urban parks in terms of its well-being aspect. It is meaningful to study the artificial lake space, especially its health benefits in the overall environment
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