Van Renterghem Timothy, Barros Ablenya, Lembrechts Jonas, Vuye Cedric
Ghent University, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department of Information Technology, WAVES Research Group, Technologiepark 126, Zwijnaarde, B 9052 Ghent, Belgium.
University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Engineering, SuPAR Research Group, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerpen, Belgium.
Sci Total Environ. 2025 Aug 10;989:179809. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179809. Epub 2025 Jun 12.
Natural sounds are known for their positive affective and restorative effects on people, as well as their ability to enhance soundscapes dominated by technical sounds. While small-scale experiments have demonstrated these benefits, their real-world applicability remains less explored. This study, part of a large-scale citizen science project called "De Oorzaak", analyzed data from 4665 participants who completed soundwalks, revealing that effectively hearing natural sounds strongly predicts positive soundscape experiences. The impact of natural sounds on pleasantness, calmness, and annoyance is limited when hearing traffic noise is very high or low, but becomes strong at intermediate levels, common in dense urban areas. Land use also plays a key role: green infrastructure identified by the Flemish Green Maps -including treedense areas, low-greenery zones, and farmland-greatly increases the likelihood of perceiving natural sounds. Notably, green features within a 500 m radius matter more than those immediately nearby. This larger area may serve as a more significant source of natural sounds capable of reaching the listener and being noticed. The provision of natural sounds can therefore be considered as an important and robust ecosystem service of green infrastructure.
自然声音以其对人们积极的情感和恢复效果以及增强由技术声音主导的声景的能力而闻名。虽然小规模实验已经证明了这些益处，但其在现实世界中的适用性仍有待进一步探索。这项研究是名为“De Oorzaak”的大规模公民科学项目的一部分，分析了4665名完成声音漫步的参与者的数据，结果表明，有效地听到自然声音强烈预示着积极的声景体验。当交通噪音非常高或非常低时，自然声音对愉悦感、平静感和烦恼感的影响有限，但在中等水平时影响会变强，这种情况在密集的城市地区很常见。土地利用也起着关键作用：佛兰芒绿色地图所确定的绿色基础设施——包括树木茂密的地区、绿化程度低的区域和农田——大大增加了感知自然声音的可能性。值得注意的是，半径500米范围内的绿色特征比紧邻区域的绿色特征更重要。这个更大的区域可能是能够到达听众并被注意到的更重要的自然声音来源。因此，提供自然声音可以被视为绿色基础设施一项重要且稳固的生态系统服务。
