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This study aims to explore the influence of spatial functional differences on the overall relationship between soundscape and visual landscape in the context of historical blocks and then propose design guidelines for audiovisual elements. Audiovisual stimulus materials were collected from 11 representative locations in typical urban historical blocks along the southeast coast of China and classified into residential, cultural leisure, and commercial spaces based on their primary function, activity, and visual environment characteristics. An evaluation environment was created in the laboratory using virtual reality technology, and a subjective evaluation questionnaire was administered to 71 volunteers regarding the perception of audiovisual elements and the evaluation of the overall environment. Structural equation modeling was used to elucidate the relationships between sound source perception, soundscape perception, visual landscape satisfaction, and overall harmony of the environment and to compare the effects of functional differences at different locations on the overall relationships. The results show significant differences in the types of perceived sound sources at different functional locations, which makes the sound sources affecting soundscape perception and visual landscape satisfaction different. Residential space is mainly affected by artificial sound and mechanical noise; in cultural and leisure spaces, all three types of sound sources have a significant impact, and only natural sound has enhanced subjective perception; the impact of artificial sound in commercial space is crucial. In addition, visual landscape satisfaction should be prioritized over soundscape pleasure to enhance the overall harmony of the environment. In residential and commercial spaces, reducing artificial and mechanical noise can effectively enhance the harmony of the environment; in cultural and leisure areas, reducing artificial sounds and increasing natural sounds or historical landscape elements can enhance the overall harmony of the environment. The results of this paper provide empirical evidence for understanding the overall relationship between soundscape factors in urban contexts and suggest that place function should be considered an important context when designing soundscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kulangsu is a famous scenic area in China and a World Heritage Site. It is important to obtain knowledge with regard to the status of soundscape and landscape resources and their interrelationships in Kulangsu before it became a World Heritage. The objective of this study was to explore the spatial dependency of the soundscapes in Kulangsu, based on the spatiotemporal dynamics of soundscape and landscape perceptions, including perceived sound sources, soundscape quality, and landscape satisfaction degree, and the spatial landscape characteristics, including the distance to green spaces, normalized difference vegetation index, and landscape spatial patterns. The results showed that perception of soundscape and landscape were observed in significant spatiotemporal dynamics, and the dominance of biological sounds in all sampling periods and human sounds in the evening indicated that Kulangsu scenic area had a good natural environment and a developed night-time economy, respectively. The green spaces and commercial lands may contribute to both the soundscape pleasantness and eventfulness. Moreover, the soundscape quality was dependent on the sound dominant degree and landscape satisfaction degree but not on the landscape characteristics. The GWR model had better goodness of fit than the OLS model, and possible non-linear relationships were found between the soundscape pleasantness and the variables of perceived sound sources and landscape satisfaction degree. The GWR models with spatial stationarity were found to be more effective in understanding the spatial dependence of soundscapes. In particular, the data applied should ideally include a complete temporal dimension to obtain a relatively high fitting accuracy of the model. These findings can provide useful data support and references for future planning and design practices, and management strategies for the soundscape resources in scenic areas and World Heritage Sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The aim of the study was to describe the soundscape elements, spatial-temporal changes and preferences in plant soundscape using quantitative measures, in order to recommend soundscape design methods. Both acoustic measurements and subjective evaluations of the soundscapes were conducted at various locations in Jinan Forest Park using 14 groups of plant spaces within the park. Our analysis investigated soundscape elements categorized as nature sounds, human activity sounds, and mechanical sounds. The soundscapes varied with time of day and season and were influenced by the surrounding environment and human behavior. Soundscape element preferences were correlated with a visitor’s age and visitation frequency, with nature sounds receiving the highest preference scores. Closed nature spaces had lower sound levels and received the highest preference by visitors. The results were further analyzed according to five soundscape methods to improve visitor experience: sound-masking, sound-borrowing, sound-reinforcement, sound-contrasting, and sound-expectation, that are also consistent with Chinese classical garden design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passive acoustic monitoring has developed rapidly as a tool for ecological assessments, and the use of acoustic indices to assess biodiversity in urban forests promises to be a low-cost and efficient analytical approach. However, the accuracy of using acoustic indices to characterize biodiversity may be compromised by excessive human interference. The acoustic complexity index (ACI) and normalized difference soundscape index (NDSI) were chosen to determine their application value, and explore the spatiotemporal patterns of change in the soundscape of a newly established suburban forest park in China. To understand the influence of drivers such as different sound source types, road distance, and vegetation structure on the soundscape, the Eastern Suburb Forest Park was selected as the study area, and 55 recording points (200 m intervals, 5 × 11 grids) were set up using a systematic grid. Passive acoustic monitoring was performed for four consecutive days in each season, and the spatiotemporal variation of the soundscape was visualized based on indices interpolation. The results showed that when using ACI and NDSI to rapidly assess biodiversity in urban forest environments, attention needs to be paid to the implications of seasonal fluctuations on indices. The temporal variation of the soundscape was closely related to the natural rhythms and vocal activity intensity of organisms. Distance to a nearby main road, distance to water, and structural complexity of vegetation were key factors influencing spatial variation. The findings support the use of acoustic methods to assess the characteristics of soundscapes in human-built urban forests. Soundscape mapping visualizes hotspots and moments of ecoacoustic activity, and has great potential for development in the conservation and management of suburban forest soundscapes. • Using ACI and NDSI for soundscape ecology studies in urban forests requires consideration of seasonal influences. • Temporal variation of soundscapes is related to the natural rhythms of birds and insects. • Daily variation in both bird and human acoustic activity with two peaks but at staggered times. • Road distance, water distance, and vegetation structure are key factors influencing the spatial variation of the soundscape. • Spatial interpolation visualizes the peak acoustic activity of biodiversity and the impact of roads on the soundscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, surveys were conducted at four typical Han Chinese Buddhist temples. These surveys were then analyzed to identify the subjective and objective factors of soundscape evaluation. Field measurements of the four temples’ sound levels were taken over the course of an entire day, and the representative sounds in temples were recorded. Soundscape evaluation questionnaire surveys were distributed at the temples. The analytical results of the questionnaire and measurement data showed that the sound preferences in temples are significantly correlated with sharpness value of the sounds in terms of psychoacoustic parameters, and the average sound levels at the four temples over the course of an entire day were between 47.0 and 52.7 dBA, and approximately 70% of those surveyed tended to evaluate the temples’ soundscapes as comfortable and harmonious. Regarding the objective factors, there was a significant correlation between the measured sound levels and the soundscape evaluations. When the sound level of a temple was higher than 60 dBA, respondents were more likely to feel uncomfortable, and the correlation between the sound level and the evaluation of acoustic comfort substantially increased. Regarding the subjective factors, the respondent’s age, occupation, religious belief, purpose, frequency of visiting the temples, and educational level significantly correlated with the soundscape evaluation with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.13 to 0.35. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism soundscape is a new field of tourism landscape research, soundscape designs offer new concepts for the landscape research and development. Taking China Dinosaur Land in Changzhou City for example, visitors' perception about soundscape comfort in theme parks was studied. The researches found that acoustic comfort was influenced by objective parameters of sound and subjective perception of visitors, and when the soundscape volume stayed at a certain threshold value, visitors would gain the most satisfied acoustic comfort experience, and they were most sensitive to sound elements that able to convey cultural connotations of the theme park. On this basis, this paper adopted positive design, negative design, and zero design, and proposed the concepts of optimizing theme park soundscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A famous Naqshbandī Sufi, Ahmad Kāsānī Dahbīdī, surnamed Makhdūm-i A'zam, had great influence on Islamic practices and thought in the Chinese part of Central Asia as early as the late sixteenth century when his descendants, known as Makhdū- mzāda, conducted missionary campaigns in the Tarim basin. Among the 30 or so treatises that he wrote, two are of particular interest for understanding Islamic soundscapes. The first work is entitled Risālāyi dhikr, or Treatise on Recitation, and describes the devotional repetition of the profession of faith (shahāda). The second text is devoted to the practice of spiritual audition (samā'). This Risālāyi samā'iyya is basically a defence of Sufi musical performances. A close reading of the texts shows that the master nourished the ambition to promote a profound and encompassing vision of Sufi practices, which would educate and, at the same time, enlarge his circles of disciples. Despite the later divisions among the Makhdūmzāda branches, and the heated debates on forms of dhikr and samā', Ahmad Kāsānī's teaching was an inaugural act that has left a deep legacy for the Sufi soundscape of Xinjiang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies in the anthropology of Islam have called for a new understanding of the relationship between global forms of Islam and local priorities, new ideologies and everyday religious experience. This article addresses these concerns in the context of Uyghur society in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China where communities are increasingly engaging with transnational currents of Islamic ideology, and increasingly under pressure from the state which conflates religiosity with anti-state activity and extremist terrorism. The article focuses on Islamic media, in particular at the ways in which rural Uyghur women experience and reproduce globalized forms of Islamic media. It aims to understand how the most marginalized sectors of society are engaging with these changing religious ideologies and practices. The theoretical frame draws on notions of the 'soundscape', which explore the ways in which sound, practices of listening and perceptions of sound, may be central to making sense of the world around us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Birdsongs, wind sounds and running water sounds improve the aesthetic preference. • The place with diverse vegetation types is a right site for birdsongs or wind sounds. • The place with wavy terrain and few hydrophytes is a right site for water sounds. • It is better to keep the congruence of soundscape's visual association and landscape. Although research on the effect of soundscape on preference has been growing rapidly in recent years, a detailed understanding of the aesthetic quality of interactions between key characteristics of the visual landscape and soundscape is poorly known. In order to explore the effects of auditory-visual combinations on aesthetic preference we conducted an experiment involving eight videos of urban green spaces in Xuzhou, eastern China were merged with five natural sounds (birdsongs of single and multiple species, wind sounds, a frog croak and running water sounds). The aesthetic preferences of these combined sounds and videos, as well as silent videos were evaluated by 379 college students using a seven-point Likert scale. The results suggested that: (1) generally speaking, birdsongs of a single or multiple species, wind sounds and running water sounds enhanced aesthetic enjoyment, while a frog croak decreased it; (2) introducing birdsongs and wind sounds to a place with diverse types of vegetation, and introducing running water sounds to a landscape possessing undulating topography and few aquatic plants were the effective ways to increase the effect of soundscape on aesthetic quality; (3) in general, if the visual association of a soundscape was congruent with the existing visual landscape, the combination was more likely to improving the aesthetic experience. These results provide valuable guidance and reference for urban planners, managers and landscape architects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]