Eco-Acoustic Assessment of an Urban Park by Statistical Analysis

Abstract

We investigated the statistical properties of the sounds recorded at a site located in the Parco Nord of Milan, Italy, characterized by wooded land rich in biodiversity and exposed to different sources and types of anthropogenic disturbances with the aim of deriving information on its environmental quality in terms of biophonic presence and athropic disturbance. A time series of eco-acosutic indices were determined for 616 audio files recorded from 30 April 2019 (5:00 p.m.) to 3 May 2019 (5:00 a.m.) with a 1-min duration followed by a 5-min pause (10 recordings per hour). In the present study, the following indices were computed: the Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI), Acoustic Diversity Index (ADI), Acoustic Evenness Index (AEI), Bio-acoustic Index (BI), Acoustic Entropy Index (H), Normalized Difference Soundscape Index (NSDI) and Dynamic Spectral Centroid (DSC). Cluster analysis performed on the corresponding time series yielded a dimensional reduction from seven down to three. The results show a clear separation of the eco-acoustic indices into two clusters, reflecting the different dynamics and diversity behaviour throughout the recordings. A post-processing aural survey was also performed, aiming at determining biophonic activities (mainly avian vocalization and other animals), the characteristics of technophonies sources (mainly road traffic noise and airplane fly-overs), human presence (voices and steps) and geophonies (rain and wind). The statistical analysis proved to be a robust tool due to the good matching obtained with the aural survey outcomes. The overall quality of the Parco Nord phonic activity was found to be low. Notwithstanding the presence of avian species, highlighted by the characteristic dawn chorus, both clusters revealed low “scores” of NDSI and DSC indices heavily influenced by road traffic sources. This study represents the first step toward the realization of maps of eco-acoustic indices for the long-term monitoring of fragile habitats.