TY - JOUR

T1 - Can acoustic indices reflect the characteristics of public recreational behavioral in urban green spaces?

AU - Fu, Weicong

AU - Ran, Chengyu

AU - Huang, Jingkai

AU - Chen, Zhu

AU - Fan, Shiyuan

AU - Fang, Wenqiang

AU - Ye, Miaojun

AU - Dong, Jiaying

AU - Yao, Xiong

AU - Chen, Ziru

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC): Green Urbanization across China and Europe: Collaborative Research on Key technological Advances in Urban Forests, (Grant No. 2021YFE0193200); Horizon 2020 strategic plan: CLEARING HOUSE—Collaborative Learning in Research, Information sharing, and Governance on How Urban tree-based solutions support Sino-European urban futures, (Grant No. 821242).

PY - 2023/10

Y1 - 2023/10

N2 - Acoustic indicators serve as an effective means of assessing the quality of urban green space soundscape. The informative, easy accessibility and non-invasive nature of acoustic monitoring renders it an excellent tool for studying the interaction among the natural environment, wildlife, and human activities. Urban green space is essential in the urban ecosystem and constitutes the primary location for public outdoor recreation. However, the existing methods for monitoring public recreational behavior, such as on-site observation, drone observation, or questionnaire interviews, require significant labor or professional expertise. All of these methods have their limitations, so there is still much to be researched in the acoustic indices and recreational behavior. As a result, the potential for using acoustic characteristics to monitor public recreational behavior remains underexplored. To address this gap, this study investigates the potential of 5 widely used acoustic indices and acoustic intensity for monitoring public recreational behavior: Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI), Acoustic Diversity Index (ADI), Acoustic Richness (AR), Normalized Difference Soundscape Index (NDSI), and Power Spectral Density (PSD). Data were collected from 35 monitoring points in urban green spaces during the opening hours (6:00–22:00) to analyze the relationship between these indices and public recreational behavior. The findings indicate that (1) ACI, ADI, and AR daily exhibited multi-peak daily variation characteristics similar to those of public recreational behavior, displaying a “W” shape, while NDSI exhibits opposite variation characteristics; (2) the spatial variation characteristics of ACI, ADI, and AR change in response to the green space, and these changes align with public recreational behavior; (3) the correlation analysis and generalized linear mixed model construction further demonstrate that acoustic indices are effective in capturing the dynamic activities of visitor behavior; and (4) PSD undergoes significant temporal dynamic changes along the frequency gradient, with different frequency intervals reflecting the activity information of different recreational behaviors. In conclusion, this research highlights the effectiveness of using acoustic indices to analyze both the spatial and temporal variation characteristics of public recreational behavior in urban green spaces. The results can provide valuable data support for the enhancement and renovation of urban green spaces.

AB - Acoustic indicators serve as an effective means of assessing the quality of urban green space soundscape. The informative, easy accessibility and non-invasive nature of acoustic monitoring renders it an excellent tool for studying the interaction among the natural environment, wildlife, and human activities. Urban green space is essential in the urban ecosystem and constitutes the primary location for public outdoor recreation. However, the existing methods for monitoring public recreational behavior, such as on-site observation, drone observation, or questionnaire interviews, require significant labor or professional expertise. All of these methods have their limitations, so there is still much to be researched in the acoustic indices and recreational behavior. As a result, the potential for using acoustic characteristics to monitor public recreational behavior remains underexplored. To address this gap, this study investigates the potential of 5 widely used acoustic indices and acoustic intensity for monitoring public recreational behavior: Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI), Acoustic Diversity Index (ADI), Acoustic Richness (AR), Normalized Difference Soundscape Index (NDSI), and Power Spectral Density (PSD). Data were collected from 35 monitoring points in urban green spaces during the opening hours (6:00–22:00) to analyze the relationship between these indices and public recreational behavior. The findings indicate that (1) ACI, ADI, and AR daily exhibited multi-peak daily variation characteristics similar to those of public recreational behavior, displaying a “W” shape, while NDSI exhibits opposite variation characteristics; (2) the spatial variation characteristics of ACI, ADI, and AR change in response to the green space, and these changes align with public recreational behavior; (3) the correlation analysis and generalized linear mixed model construction further demonstrate that acoustic indices are effective in capturing the dynamic activities of visitor behavior; and (4) PSD undergoes significant temporal dynamic changes along the frequency gradient, with different frequency intervals reflecting the activity information of different recreational behaviors. In conclusion, this research highlights the effectiveness of using acoustic indices to analyze both the spatial and temporal variation characteristics of public recreational behavior in urban green spaces. The results can provide valuable data support for the enhancement and renovation of urban green spaces.

KW - Acoustic index

KW - Recreational behavior

KW - Soundscape

KW - Spatial and temporal variation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85166930064&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.110729

DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.110729

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85166930064

VL - 154

JO - Ecological indicators

JF - Ecological indicators

SN - 1470-160X

M1 - 110729

ER -