The assessment of soundscape quality in historic urban parks: A case study of El-Goli Park of Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

The preservation of historic sites requires a multisensory approach, in which sound plays an important role. A good acoustic environment could contribute to the aesthetic, ecological, and cultural improvement of historic sites, as well as increase visitor attendance with their surroundings. Due to the unique spatial qualities and social-cultural distinctions of these locations, it seems essential to consider the inherent differences in their soundscapes. The hypothesis of this study is to assess the interrelationships between soundscape evaluations and environmental indicators including visual quality and overall impression as well as the related semantic attributes. The historic El-Goli Park of Tabriz, which is in a semi-natural environment, was evaluated as the field study. Field measurements at sampled locations were conducted to record sound pressure levels (SPL) to generate sound maps. At the same time, a questionnaire survey was used for the subjective assessment of soundscape quality. The main results are as follows: 1. Natural sounds (birds and water) and human sounds (voices and footsteps) are the sounds primarily perceived as dominant and pleasant. 2. For a selected location, the higher the percentage of visitors reporting a pleasant sound (mainly natural sounds), the higher the reported soundscape quality, visual quality, and overall impression. 3. Among the social/demographic/behavioral factors considered, “age” and “time period during a day of visit” were associated with soundscape perception. These results may be helpful for the soundscape of historic city parks and will offer helpful insights into landscape policy and regional acoustic environment planning.