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Identification of urban park activity intensity at different thermal environments and visible sky by using sound levels

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Abstract

An efficient urban environmental design considers appropriate thermal comfort condition, shaded space, and activity intensity. Physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) and visible sky, i.e., the sky view factor (SVF), are usually used as indicators to determine the outdoor thermal comfort and amount of shaded space, respectively. The activity intensity in urban parks, which is dependent on culture and micrometeorological conditions, was represented inappropriately by attendance density in Taiwan. To optimize the park design and improve the park utilization rate in Taiwan, several environmental factors such as sound pressure levels and numbers of park visitors were measured, and PET values and SVF values were calculated from primary micrometeorological data such as wind speed and globe temperature. This study proposed equivalent continuous sound pressure level (Leq) as a novel indicator to represent park activity intensity and investigated the correlation between Leq and SVF at different PET values. Leq was more appropriate than was attendance density in representing the park activity intensity in Taiwan. In addition, Leq was highly negatively correlated with SVF when visitors felt that the outdoor thermal comfort condition was hot or very hot. In other words, a lower degree of shading in the park resulted in lower activity intensity. Park visitors tended to engage in activities in the shaded regions because of more favorable thermal comfort conditions (i.e., neutral PET). The established quantitative relationships among Leq, PET, and SVF can serve as a reference for park planning.

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Acknowledgements

Felix Sebastian is appreciated for his editorial assistance.

Funding

The authors would like to thank the National Science Council of Taiwan for the partial financial support of this research under Project NSC103-2221-E-507-005 and NSC104-2221-E-005-077.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program of Landscape and Recreation, National Chung Hsing University, 145 Xingda Rd, Taichung, 402, Taiwan

    Kang-Ting Tsai & Yu-Hao Lin

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  1. Kang-Ting Tsai
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  2. Yu-Hao Lin
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Correspondence to Yu-Hao Lin.

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Tsai, KT., Lin, YH. Identification of urban park activity intensity at different thermal environments and visible sky by using sound levels. Int J Biometeorol 62, 1987–1994 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-018-1603-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-018-1603-6

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