Evaluation of natural sounds in urban greenery: potential impact for urban nature preservation

Abstract

Most humans now live in cities and their main experience of nature is through urban greenery. An increasing number of studies show the importance of urban green spaces for wellbeing, although most of them are based on visual perception. A questionnaire examining people's evaluations of natural sounds was answered by 1326 individuals living near one of six urban green areas of varying naturalness in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. Women and the elderly reported greater calmness when hearing bird song and rustling leaves (and placed a higher importance on the richness of bird species) than did men, younger and middle-aged individuals. Independent of age and gender, urban woodlands (high naturalness) had higher evaluations than parks (low naturalness). Our results suggest that to increase positive experiences of urban green areas, demographic variables of gender and age should be taken into account, and settings that mimic nature should be prioritized in planning.

Keywords

urban greenery; soundscape; bird song; urban woodlands; urban planning; biodiversity

Published in

Royal Society Open Science
2017, volume: 4, number: 2, article number: 170037

SLU Authors

• Hedblom, Marcus

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Ode Sang, Åsa

  • Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

Nature experiences and health

Global goals (SDG)

SDG3 Good health and well-being
SDG5 Gender equality
SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities

UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology
Landscape Architecture
Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology)

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170037

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/79919