Urban Park Soundscapes: Association of Noise and Danger With Perceived Restoration

Abstract

For the majority of Americans who live in urban areas, parks and other urban green spaces offer recreation environments that promote human health.  To better understand how parks and urban green spaces enhance people’s well-being, this study uses a cross-over field experiment design to analyze the impact of noise and danger on perceived restoration.  Participants (N = 112) walked in a random order through two one-mile routes in natural (park) and artificial (street) environments. Participants self-reported their levels of perceived restoration, noise, and danger after walking through each environment.

Similar to previous studies, the natural (park) environment was perceived as significantly more restorative than the artificial (street) environment.  Noise was a significant predictor of the significantly higher levels of perceived restoration.  In contrast, although participants did perceive the artificial environment as more dangerous, this construct explained a relatively small amount of variation in perceived restoration and was not a significant predictor.  

These results have implications for park agencies.  In order to facilitate both physical activity and restoration opportunities for people recreating in parks, agencies should conserve and enhance the natural soundscape by maintaining and further developing sound buffering vegetation at the perimeter of parks.  The effect of this landscaping could be enhanced by regulations minimizing the level of mechanical and human noise in the surrounding areas. Second, while repurposing city streets into temporary parks may offer excellent opportunities for outdoor physical activity, people recreating in such temporarily repurposed streets may experience less restoration than they would in a permanent park due to the relative absence of a natural acoustic environment.  Third, pocket parks and other small parks may not have enough buffering landscaping on the perimeter of the park to facilitate a natural soundscape within the park.  Moreover, if small parks promote physical activity by encouraging people to walk to the park, then these parks may be leading people to walk in less restorative street environments that are replete with mechanical and human noise. Finally, although everyone may not be seeking restoration, agencies should include information about the quality of the soundscape in their marketing material to help users find the acoustic environment that best meets their needs. Overall, this study suggests that agencies consider using landscape maintenance, regulation, park design, and education to facilitate and promote opportunities for outdoor recreationists to experience restoration in urban parks.