Important Public Space Research Articles

Public Open Space Assessment and Management: A case of Damak Municipality, Jhapa, Nepal

Abstract: Most of the public spaces are being used for the development of public buildings in the name of schools, hospitals, multi-purpose halls, temples, community buildings, etc. The lack of lively and quality public places is faced by all in recent years. There are several reasons why our city continues to encroach on public spaces. The public, even the city leaders are not well aware of the concept and importance of public space. A lack of capacity for development activities and a lack of competent human resources still exist in the establishment and management of public space. Political will and interest play vital roles in achieving lively and vibrant public spaces. The total area or percentage composition of public open spaces to the total area of the municipality illustrates how much people-friendly environment the municipality has been able to provide to its citizens. The aim of the research (which is based on the field survey of 2019 A.D.) is to identify the public open spaces in Damak municipality, assess their use and potentiality; and formulate policies regarding the management of these spaces. A combined strategies technique was considered for the facts series, which includes a self-administered questionnaire survey and observations. The research has identified 167 public spaces in this municipality and it concludes that the formulation of guidelines and laws, with their proper implementation, is a must to secure safe public spaces

The Renovation of Italian Railway Stations: From the Journey to the Consumption of the Journey

The article analyses the transformations that have affected Italian railway stations in recent decades. The first part deals with the history of the railway station and is devoted to understanding its functions as well as its social and symbolic meanings. The construction of railways had a significant impact on the urban form: it created new centralities and fractures and conditioned the development of the city. The railway station represented a novelty from an architectural point of view, being a space in which architectural and engineering knowledge merged. Because of their importance and monumentality, railway stations have been likened to cathedrals of modernity and movement and have been among the most important public spaces in the twentieth century. The second part of the article focuses on railway station renovation projects, in particular the «Grandi Stazioni» project, viewing it in the broader context of the profound changes in urban policies, which are increasingly oriented towards enhancing competitiveness and attractiveness. The renovation of stations has been aimed at revitalising rail mobility to address the mounting crisis in both the freight and passenger sectors, due to competition from road transport first and air transport later. The loss of centrality of rail transport had also affected railway station spaces, multiplying material and social voids as well as forms of decay. The renovation of railway stations has taken the form of a privatisation and commodification of spaces and an increase in surveillance and control. The transformations of railway stations can thus be read an example of contraction/domestication of public space.
 
 Received: 21 October 2022 / Accepted: 26 December 2022 / Published: 5 January 2023

Exploring lost spaces towards regaining them for urban life: The case of Konya historical city center

The functions, values, and meanings of cities, which have been in constant change and transformation throughout history, are changing in response to rapidly changing conditions, particularly in recent times. The areas where this change can be observed most concretely are generally urban spaces. Some places in the city, which cannot keep up with this speed, may lose their structural or functional use over time and remain idle when they are not fed or equipped with suitable activities that will integrate with the environmental character and bring vitality. Therefore, within the very valuable urban land, they may become lost spaces for the city. It seems very important to regain such spaces in the rhythm of daily urban life, considering that they have strong economic, social, and physical potential, as well as being lost. From this point of view, the aim of the study is to identify the lost spaces in the historical city center of Konya, which was chosen as the sample area, and to identify the urban space(s) that should be intervened in with priority among the identified lost spaces. The Trancik method was used to find the lost spaces in the area using detailed analysis. With the help of figure-ground, linkage, and place theories in Roger Trancik's book titled "Finding Lost Space: Theories of Urban Design" (1986), both morphological analyses (figure-ground and linkage analyses) and questionnaires and cognitive maps were used to understand "place" and measure its perceptibility. The research to understand the "place" was carried out with a total of 50 people using the random sampling technique. Then, within the scope of the study, all the findings obtained from figure-ground, linkage, and place analyses were synthesized, and all lost spaces within the sample area were determined. Among these identified lost spaces, Kılıçarslan Square and its environs were determined to be the most undetected, unused, disliked, and first intervention requested by the participants. This result underlines the necessity of saving an important public space in the heart of the city from its current transition space and using it more effectively through scientific evidence. This result underlines the necessity of saving an important public space in the heart of the city from its current transition space and using it more effectively through scientific evidence. With its effective use, the area will be reintroduced to the city.

Evaluation of Antalya Bus Station Information Element Designs in terms of Visual Aesthetic Quality

A The concept of information, known as information expansion, has been at the forefront in terms of the needs of societies from the past to the present. Recently, especially with the development of technological facilities, the importance of information design systems has increased considerably. Information and guidance elements exist in every field of social use, enabling the transfer of information; It is an important element in providing interaction for information and orientation within the spaces and gaining the functional and visual aesthetic appreciation of people with effective visual communication tools. As a social use, bus station structures also stand out as an important public space in the design of information and guidance elements. Within the scope of the study, focusing on the informatics language of bus station structures; It is aimed to determine the signage systems in the building through the example of Antalya Bus Station and to evaluate these designs in the context of graphic design space. In the evaluation of the identified signage systems, semi-structured interview techniques and descriptive analysis methods were used. In the first stage of the study, passenger, and employee opinions about the information-guidance qualities of the existing signage systems were taken. Within the scope of the interview data obtained, signage systems were evaluated by making descriptive analyses in the context of design elements and design principles as information-guidance design components determined in the existing literature. As a result of the evaluations, it was seen that most of the signage systems in the bus station structure were insufficient in terms of functional and visual aesthetic quality and that identity was not given to the bus station space and the city. As a method criterion, the study is expected to be a source for researchers from many disciplines that are active in the information and guidance design of bus station structures with approaches and elements appropriate to the identity of the city.

Comparative Analysis of Urban and Rural Public Space Environment Design Based on Multimedia Information

At this stage, the most important content of rural construction includes the construction of rural public space, which is related to the environment of all rural areas, the happiness of villagers, and the inheritance and development of rural areas. Especially under the guidance of the rural revitalization strategy, the necessity of public space environment construction has become increasingly prominent, becoming an irreplaceable core content in rural construction. Therefore, we must closely focus on the development needs of rural areas at this stage, dig deep into the development of the public space environment, find corresponding design strategies, and maximize the completion of the real construction of beautiful rural areas. Rural public spaces have experienced the pain of new urbanization and rural intelligence. The most important public spaces in traditional agricultural societies, such as deep-water wells, trees, and sundecks, will slowly decline and fade. In the future, public space in rural areas must function in urban areas. Rural public spaces with complex roles and diverse types of public activities are the main orientations for the transformation of rural spaces in the future.

Research on Sustainable Renewal Design of Commercial Streets in Bengbu Old Town

THE PACE OF urban development will not stop. Only through sustainable renewal can street space adapt to the development of the city and maintain the vitality of the space. The old city street is one of the most important public Spaces in the city. The renewal of street space is of great significance for the improvement of city quality. This study takes the commercial streets in the old urban area of Bengbu City as an example, and on the basis of studying relevant theories, puts forward the sustainable design method of commercial streets, which mainly includes the following points: 1. The use of sustainable design ideas for the whole life cycle. 2. Humanistic display improves the cultural connotation of streets. 3. Humanized design strategy. 4. Construct continuous commercial street space.

АНАЛІЗ ОРГАНІЗАЦІЙНО-ЕКОНОМІЧНОГО ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ МІСЬКИХ ПАРКІВ УКРАЇНИ НА ОСНОВІ ОПИТУВАНЬ

The development of comfortable urban parks is impossible without determining the priority needs and preferences of citizens. With the increasing pace of urbanization and the density of urban population, public green spaces must be designed to meet the needs of different categories and segments of the population. This is a difficult task, given the significant demand of urban parks, and the limited nature of their areas. Therefore, in order to increase the public and economic effects, the planning of park space must take into accountconsider the opinion of citizens. The purpose of this article is to present the results of sociological research in Ukraine on the satisfaction of the local parks and the formation of a universal and simple methodology of the questionnaire survey analysis. The research is based on the foreign experience of questioning the improvement of city parks and theoretical works of Ukrainian and foreign scientists on the importance of park space in cultural life. The accessibility of the questionnaire survey and its simple interpretation will allow in the future to introduce the survey in the practice of state and public institutions. The task of the questionnaire survey is to simplify the connection between state institutions and the public, to increase the level of mutual understanding and interaction. The following research methods were used in the article: questionnaire survey using electronic communication resources, analytical method and logical generalization. The questionnaire survey is constructed in such a way as to show the consumer potential of existing parks and consumer preferences of visitors. By comparing these characteristics in the analysis, you can understand how existing park facilities meet the needs of citizens. In the process of the questioning, there were revealed the problems of surveys in Ukraine, as well as some priority features of the needs of citizens in the use of parks for residents of large and small cities, the current problems in the improvement of green areas of the main categories of cities in Ukraine. In order to disseminate the experience of questionnaire surveys in the field of park improvement and to increase the popularity of this method of public relations, a universal method of assessing the results of the survey was proposed, which is acceptable in the evaluation of any questionnaire, easy to use and gives a clear understanding of the priority of certain areas. The work aims to embody an integrated approach to park improvement, in which green spaces are seen as important public space in cities, so they are designed and modernized with the participation of public opinion.

Sustainable Complete Streets Design Criteria and Case Study in Naples, Italy

Background: A growing number of communities are re-discovering the value of their streets as important public spaces for many aspects of daily life, creating the need for a transformation in the quality of those streets. An emerging concept of ‘complete streets’ is to accommodate all users of the transportation system. Methods: In this paper, we present sustainable complete streets design criteria that integrate complete streets by adding socio-environmental design criteria related to the aesthetics, environment, liveability, and safety. To help set priorities, identify the street design features, and create intuitive multimodal networks throughout the city, we have defined a list of the general and specific criteria to be addressed for sustainable complete streets. Results: The proposed design criteria provide a street network with improvements in its aesthetics, to recover the historical urban character and realize historical area planning goals; the environment, to increase the permeable surfaces, reduce the heat island effect, and to absorb traffic-related air pollution; the liveability, to create a public space destination in the urban landscape; and safety, to improve the safety of all road users. The design scenarios proposed in the study were conceived to help practitioners to consider these context-based uses and design accordingly by gaining knowledge from past experiences to benefit future projects. Conclusions: The case study of the urban rehabilitation of the “Mostra d’Oltremare” area and its cultural and architectural assets in Naples, Italy, highlights the practical application of the proposed criteria and the possibility of using these criteria in other urban contexts.

Changes in frequency of park/playground utilization among children aged 4–59 months in Los Angeles County, California 2008–2020

Child physical activity and play are critical for healthy development, and parks/playgrounds are important public spaces that provide physical activity/play opportunities. This study was conducted to assess changes in park/playground utilization by Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)-participating children from 2008 to 2020, and whether the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with lower park/playground utilization and racial/ethnic disparities in park/playground utilization. Cross-sectional data from the 2008–2020 triennial Los Angeles County WIC Survey (n = 21,886) were used, and analyses stratified by child age (4–23 months, 24–59 months). Odds ratios (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) for the relationship between year and park/playground utilization frequency were determined from multinomial logistic regression, and racial/ethnic disparities were assessed by interacting year with race/ethnicity. Among children 24–59 months of age, park/playground utilization increased compared to never from 2011 to 2017 compared to 2008 (Every day, 2011–2017: OR [95 % CI]: 2.69 [1.93, 3.75], 4.71 [3.23, 6.86], 10.20 [6.91, 15.06]; 3–6 days/week 2011–2017: 1.54 [1.13, 2.10], 3.11 [2.18, 4.45], 3.94 [2.71, 5.72]; 1–2 days/week, 2014–2017; 1.53 [1.08, 2.18], 1.63 [1.13, 2.37]). Associations reversed in 2020, with 36 % lower odds of every day (OR [95 % CI]: 0.64 [0.48, 0.85]), 85 % lower odds of 3–6 days/week (0.15 [0.11, 0.20]) and 89 % lower odds of 1–2 days/week (0.11 [0.09, 0.15]) park/playground utilization compared to never than in 2008. Park/playground utilization frequency increased from 2008 to 2017, but progress reversed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Results for children ages 4–23 months were similar. Future public health restrictions to public recreation facilities should consider realistic limitations to potential benefits and the potential for unintended consequences before implementation.

Difference of Usage Behavior between Urban Greenway and Suburban Greenway: A Case Study in Beijing, China

Greenway is an important linear public space that meets the diverse needs of the public. With the increasing popularity of greenway construction, the study of different greenway usage behavior in different socio-economic areas is of great value to the detailed design and construction of greenway in the future. Using the theory of environment-behavior studies (EBS), this study selected representative urban greenways and suburban greenways in Beijing, China, and conducted a questionnaire survey. Descriptive statistics and the chi-squared test are used to quantitatively analyze and summarize the behavior of greenway users. It is found that user gender, educational level, and residence (i.e., permanent resident or visitor), as well as season of use, are highly similar for urban greenways and suburban greenways in Beijing. However, due to a close relationship with urban location, modified by temporal, spatial, and personal factors, different behavioral characteristics are evident as follows: (1) Urban greenways are most closely related to daily life, work and education of urban residents, with short travel distances, short single use time, high frequency of use, high social and cultural value, wide distribution of age groups and wide distribution of time periods of use. (2) Suburban greenways are an important choice for residents’ outdoor activities on weekends and holidays. It is mainly used for ecological protection and sightseeing, supplemented by sports and fitness functions. It has the characteristics of low use frequency, high income level, wide distribution of time and distance, mainly used by young and middle-aged people, and used for a single time of more than 1 hour. Natural scenery along the trail is the most important attraction factor, and waterfront space and walking space are the main use behavior characteristics.

A Greve de 1980: redes sociais e espaço urbano na mobilização coletiva dos metalúrgicos de São Bernardo do Campo

Em 1980, milhares de metalúrgicos do ABC paulista realizaram uma das mais intensas e duradouras greves da classe trabalhadora brasileira. Durante 41 dias, eles resistiram à ampla repressão que lhes foi lançada pelos patrões e pelo regime militar, a qual muito colaborou para que a mobilização coletiva dos trabalhadores se espraiasse pelo espaço urbano – especialmente, pelas ruas de São Bernardo do Campo. Expulsos das fábricas e de importantes espaços públicos, os operários mantiveram a greve a partir, principalmente, dos bairros em que residiam, fomentando a politização de espaços e relações de suas vidas cotidianas e redefinindo a geografia da mobilização coletiva. Neste artigo, analisamos alguns aspectos desse processo, destacando a importância das redes sociais dos trabalhadores para a notável (re)apropriação do espaço urbano que caracterizou o movimento paredista.

THE SQUARE AS A TOOL OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATION AND SOCIALIZATION

Urban open spaces are among the most common usage areas of urban life in the historical process. It is the most effectively used element of the areas designed as open spaces in urban planning. From a sociological point of view, urban squares are positioned as an important "public space", which is used by the inhabitants of these regions for cultural, social, commercial or political purposes on special occasions, in short, where urban life comes to life. While urban squares were an important "urban life focus" that formed the personality and identity of cities in the process, they lost their original values when they were used as car parks at the point we reached. Urban space is the main means of integration of a city/city. Public “urban spaces” are places where people can transfer their cultural knowledge and learn again. However, in terms of defining the city, individuals; It is in these places that he gains the experience of being an urbanite as a result of their cultural identity, development and communication with others. Social movements, revolutions and even coups have become symbols in the city squares, and sometimes they have been the places where the rebellion of the societies and sometimes the entertainment reached their peak. Squares, which are the basic communication and interaction spaces before the period that we will call the development of technology and the communication age, have an important place in the history of countries and societies in terms of socialization. In this study, the importance of public spaces (squares) compatible with social life was investigated by evaluating the relationship between the urban environment and social behavior from a human perspective.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0944/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

ANALYSIS OF THE KYIV PUBLIC SPACE NETWORK ON THE BASIS OF CONFIGURATION MODELS

The article is devoted to the study of spatial planning structures of cities on the basis of configuration analysis of the network of public spaces. The authors propose a research methodology based on the methods of spatial analysis and syntax, which identified the basic theoretical models of public space: a) centric; b) linear-axial; differing in the nature of spatial connections and social content. The analysis of the city center of Kyiv showed that the structure of its public spaces changed - from a linear axial, typical of ancient Russian cities, to a radial-circular, with a gradual departure from the Dnieper. During the twentieth century, Kyiv was constantly losing pedestrian public spaces. A comparative spatial analysis of the central squares of Kyiv found that they are accessible, but not pedestrian-friendly. Today, they are essentially transport interchanges. The authors have identified significant potential for unused areas that can be turned into attractive public spaces. Given the importance of public space as a carrier of identity and social function, identified the need to consider it as part of the historical and cultural heritage and cultural landscape of the city as a whole. Public spaces should form an integral, continuous pedestrian network that connects the main squares, recreation areas, cultural and memorial sites. It is possible to return the pedestrian function to the center by organizing, in particular, transport tunnels - on the European Square, on St. Michael's, etc. The authors provide examples of possible areas of urban regeneration of the historic city center.

Democracy's Violent Birth: The Czech Legionnaires and Statue Wars in the First Czechoslovak Republic

“Oh, home of tears, but let her bear this blazoned to the end of time: No nation rose so white and fair, none fell so pure of crime.” So reads the stanza from a poem popular in the South during the Civil War engraved on a Confederate soldier statue unveiled in 1911 on the lawn of the Cooke County courthouse in Gainesville, Texas (Figure 1). It is one of two Confederate statues long on display in the city of some 16,000 some ninety miles north of Dallas. This larger-than-life soldier, standing high upon a column, towers over an important public space. It is among many Confederate monuments that long occupied public spaces across the United States, often with little local debate, despite their often white-supremacist inscriptions.

Rehabilitation of squares in the old cities: A case study of Al-Almaji Square in the city of Aleppo

Squares are the soul of the city; because they play an effective role in the structure, life and identity of cities and the promotion of the urban environment in them, and are characterized by being enjoyable and can be accessed by everyone for free at any time. Each public square has its own spatial, historical, environmental, social and economic characteristics. Therefore, the identity and characteristics of the public urban squares must be developed and improved to match the place in which they are and with the change in the behavior of its users over time. The problem of the research is manifested in the lack of Al-Alamji Square in the old city of Aleppo to the spirit of the place within it, which is the traditional historical fabric in terms of its surrounding facades and in terms of its urban design, which affected its social, economic and cultural role. Therefore, the research aims at evaluating the Al-Alamji Square according to characteristics deduced from a theoretical documentary study of the bases for evaluating public squares internationally approved in this field and the stages of development of the squares historically, analyzing them and intersecting them together to conclude the most important factors that hinder public squares from performing their role, and on the other hand, the factors that support the squares to be socially, economically and culturally attractive. The research also reviews the experience of rehabilitating a new square in a historical area in Melbourne, taking advantage of the steps to address its design problems that affected its effectiveness, and then moves to the case study by evaluating it according to the theoretical and the deductive study. Suggestions, through illustrative sketches, to re-design Al-Alamji Square to accommodate different activities and modify its facades so as to harmonize with the traditional fabric of the area, increase the proportion of green spaces, determine the entrances to the square, and other suggestions, in order to improve its role as one of the important public spaces created in the old city of Aleppo.

Exploring the Effects of Roadside Vegetation on the Urban Thermal Environment Using Street View Images.

Roadsides are important urban public spaces where residents are in direct contact with the thermal environment. Understanding the effects of different vegetation types on the roadside thermal environment has been an important aspect of recent urban research. Although previous studies have shown that the thermal environment is related to the type and configuration of vegetation, remote sensing-based technology is not applicable for extracting different vegetation types at the roadside scale. The rapid development and usage of street view data provide a way to solve this problem, as street view data have a unique pedestrian perspective. In this study, we explored the effects of different roadside vegetation types on land surface temperatures (LSTs) using street view images. First, the grasses–shrubs–trees (GST) ratios were extracted from 19,596 street view images using semantic segmentation technology, while LST and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values were extracted from Landsat-8 images using the radiation transfer equation algorithm. Second, the effects of different vegetation types on roadside LSTs were explored based on geographically weighted regression (GWR), and the different performances of the analyses using remotely sensed images and street view images were discussed. The results indicate that GST vegetation has different cooling effects in different spaces, with a fitting value of 0.835 determined using GWR. Among these spaces, the areas with a significant cooling effect provided by grass are mainly located in the core commercial area of Futian District, which is densely populated by people and vehicles; the areas with a significant cooling effect provided by shrubs are mainly located in the industrial park in the south, which has the highest industrial heat emissions; the areas with a significant cooling effect provided by trees are mainly located in the core area of Futian, which is densely populated by roads and buildings. These are also the areas with the most severe heat island effect in Futian. This study expands our understanding of the relationship between roadside vegetation and the urban thermal environment, and has scientific significance for the planning and guiding of urban thermal environment regulation.

Unmapping green space

In this article, we study the ongoing redevelopment of post-war, modernist residential area Rosengård, located in Sweden’s third biggest city Malmö. We show how a planning and design strategy for this area has come to focus on a ‘compact city’ typology in line with Malmö’s strategy for creating a ‘near, dense, green and mixed city’. Such compact city typology emphasizes high density, urbanity, proximity and mixed-use as key values for renewal, but also threatens the green spaces in areas designated for densification. This article illustrates how renewal plans for modernist residential areas with generous green space provision also ensure dispossession of residents’ rights to green space. Our analysis highlights how this planned dispossession is preceded by a discursive dispossession carried out by the way urban planning represents these spaces. The Rosengård case illustrates how a compact city vision imposed on marginalized modernist areas co-emerges with new forms of expert knowledge which both ‘unmaps’ existing green spaces and defines them as problematic and requiring interventions. The article highlights the important, but not yet sufficiently explored, dispossession of the right to public green space in racialized poor peripheries of Northern cities already facing intense displacement pressure. We argue that this type of renewal of modernist areas not only tends to neglect mapping important public spaces and uses of space, but actively produces blind spots by deploying a compact city planning epistemology which necessarily undermines rights to green space in the city and should put into question the compact city as the default sustainability fix.

Современная сакральная архитектура как символ архитектурной идентичности и общественное пространство в условиях зимнего города

In this study, we examine a contemporary church building as a powerful symbol of cultural and archi-tectural identity of a city. The city space organized around and inside a religious building is considered as an important public space from the perspective of civilizational culture. During the study, a compara-tive analysis of European and Russian contemporary sacral construction was carried out with the pur-pose of forecasting the development of the present Orthodox architecture, taking into account possi-ble trends, styles and directions. A field survey of 150 contemporary churches in Austria was carried out. Their evolutionary development over the past 120 years was examined both empirically and using scientific literature. In addition, a number of Russian churches, including restored or renovated histori-cal buildings as well as new facilities built after the collapse of the USSR, were studied. As a result, an assessment and explanation of the inevitable appearance of modern trends in the Orthodox Church architecture is given. Historicisms, existing in the Orthodox architecture of our time, are assumed to be related to the forced 70-year pause in the development of Orthodox architecture, rather than to the greater conservatism of the Orthodox religion. Any architecture, even its conservative religious type, responds to events occurring in a society and to arising new cultural and functional needs. As a result, due to a competent interaction of architects and customers, the existing architectural style starts to change gradually in terms of its spatial organization, form, composition, general appearance of the in-ner and outer space, thus giving rise to new symbols of cultural and architectural identity. With the ad-dition of new functions, a church remains to be a unique public building, forming public urban spaces both in and around itself.

MODERN FEATURES OF THE REHABILITATION OF PEDESTRIAN PUBLIC SPACES IN THE CENTRAL PART OF HISTORICAL CITIES

The article discusses the relevance of studying methods of urban development of pedestrian public spaces. The ways of solving some problems in this area are considered, the importance of public spaces in the life of the city, the development of small and medium-sized businesses and the development of the cultural level of the population are analyzed.

RETRACTED: The Effects of Soundscapes in Relieving Stress in an Urban Park

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.