title: 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 well-being, 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, Sweden; Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7044, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: M
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1594-8665
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hedblom
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Work and Psychology , University of Gävle , 801 76 Gävle , Sweden.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Knez
authors.affiliation: Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management , Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences , PO Box 66, 230 53 Alnarp , Sweden.
authors.forename: Å
authors.initials: Å
authors.lastname: Ode Sang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences , University of Gothenburg , PO Box 461, 405 30 Gothenburg , Sweden.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gunnarsson
keywords: biodiversity; bird song; soundscape; urban greenery; urban planning; urban woodlands