Research of Soundscape Perception in Wulingyuan World Heritage Site and Influence Factor

The soundscape of protected areas has high values. Soundscape perception, one of the effective tools to measure the quality of protected soundscapes, is influenced by factors such as the soundscape environment, composition of sound sources, and dominant sounds. It also affects the acceptability and emotions of people's environmental perceptions. There have been studies on dominant sounds, auditory visual and emotional influences in urban and rural environments. But there is a lack of research on the elements of soundscape perception and impact perception in protected areas. This study takes the soundscape of Wulingyuan World Heritage Site as the object and, through listening experiments, correlation analysis and comparative analysis, obtains the overall characteristics of Wulingyuan soundscapes. It shows that the sounds of guide horns and the conversation in the Wuling source sound environment are the sound sources with high perceived frequency and lowest acceptability, so they should be stressed and controlled in the protection management. The acceptability of natural sound sources, such as birds and flowing water in the rural environment of Wulingyuan World Heritage Site, is higher than that of the same sound sources in the pure natural environment of Wulingyuan. In a low-noise environment, the sound sources with high perceived frequency are inconsistent with the dominant sounds, that is, the sound sources with a high perceived frequency are not necessarily the dominant sounds. Through correlation analysis, the study also finds the existence correlation between soundscape and emotional perception and personality, and concludes that natural sound sources in different acoustic environments can make the character “introverted quiet” and “anxious people” feel “relaxed”, “comfortable” and “diversified and rich”. Finally, based on the above conclusions, it puts forward the strategies and protection management suggestions for Wulingyuan soundscape values.