The Effects of Soundscape Interactions on the Restorative Potential of Urban Green Spaces

From the perspective of landscape environment and human health, this study introduces the concept of soundscape from soundscape ecology. Through two experiments evaluating the restorative properties of soundscapes, it analyzes and compares the differences in restorative benefits among various sounds in urban green spaces. The study further explores the effects of single soundscapes and combined soundscape types on environmental restorative benefits and provides recommendations for creating restorative soundscapes in urban green spaces. The main findings of this study are as follows: (1) Sound types significantly influence soundscape restorative benefits, with notable interactions observed among three single soundscape categories. Significant differences were also found in the restorative effects of different combined soundscapes. (2) The most restorative sounds for anthropogenic, biophonic, and geophonic soundscapes are light background music (1.4193), bird sounds (1.9890), and flowing water sounds (1.2691), respectively. The least restorative sounds are vehicle noise (−2.6210), conversation sounds (−0.8788), and thunder sounds (−0.7840). (3) Significant differences exist between the restorative effects of single and multi-level combined soundscapes. Except for bird sounds, the general restorative pattern is as follows: two-level combined soundscapes > three-level combined soundscapes > single soundscapes.