Effects of Soundscape Perception on Health Benefits of Forest Parks: A Case Study of Fuzhou National Forest Park

Objective: This article aims to explore whether the forest park environment can relieve human tension, the differences in health benefits of different forest park environments and the impact of soundscape perception on the health benefits of forest park, and to further study on which soundscapes are important elements of restorative (positive benefits) soundscapes, in order to provide a basis for restorative soundscape design for forest park. Method: Fuzhou national forest park was chosen for the study, 20 videos (10 videos with voice and 10 without) on environment of the forest park were tested by 35 invited college students on the park campus. The Ergo LAB data platform was used for physiological data collection during the experiment. Soundscape perception questionnaire was used to evaluate soundscape perception of different samples. The median test was used to analyze the differences in health benefits of different forest park environments. Wilcoxon test was used to analyze the effects of forest park environment on stress recovery and the impact of soundscape perception on the health benefits of forest park. Moreover, optimal scale regression was used to determine the restorative soundscape elements.Result: Different forest park environments can effectively reduce the rare of skin conductance level (SCLr), heart rate(HR) and heart rate variability (LF/HF). But different forest park environmental health benefits were different. Green space sample plots S7, S9 and blue space sample plots S8, S10 health benefits were better. There were significant differences in SCLr among different forest park environments, but no significant differences in HR and LF/HF. The addition of soundscape can change health benefits of forest park environments. Except for the sample plots S5 where conversation and children's frolic sounds were more prominent, the health benefits of audiovisual combined stimuli were higher than single visual stimuli. Chirm, running water sound, cicadas chirp, and footsteps had a greater impact on SCLr. Chirm, running water sound, cicadas chirp and wind sound had a greater impact on LF/HF. Natural sounds such as chirm and running water sound had a greater contribution to the positive benefits(SCLr decreased, HR decreased, LF/HF decreased), while artificial sounds such as footsteps were the opposite. Conclusion: The forest park environment can relieve stress to a certain extent. The health benefits of different forest park environments are different. Blue and green spaces play an important role in improving the health benefits. It is worth noting that the soundscape of forest parks is also the key to restorative environmental design. Natural sounds such as chirm and running water are important elements of restorative (positive benefit) soundscape. In the future, the design of restorative environment should start from multiple dimensions and fully explore a variety of restorative environmental elements, in order to provide more convincing evidences for the design of restorative environment of forest parks. © 2021, Editorial Department of Scientia Silvae Sinicae. All right reserved.