Urban parks are essential environmental resources in contemporary cities, for the substantial social and psychological relief they provide for local communities. In recent years, the potential of the soundscape approach for enhancing the ecological contribution of such environmental assets has been intensely investigated. Although, researchers tended to focus on the perception of people “staying” in the park, whilst it is important to consider how the sonic environment would be dynamically perceived by users walking across the park. Within this framework, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of different footpath materials on soundscape quality and walking quality perception for people walking in an urban park, considering that the experience of such users is affected by both the background acoustic environment of the park and their walking sound. To this purpose, a laboratory experiment was carried out with 25 participants. Four different walked-on materials that are likely to be used in urban parks were tested: grass, wood, stone and gravel. Results show that the material factor has a significant effect on both auditory and haptic perception. Furthermore, positive correlations can be observed between auditory and haptic variables, confirming that the soundscape appreciation for people walking in urban parks is likely to be affected also by other but aural sensory modalities. The paper ultimately points out that it is possible to re-think the approach to urban parks design and more specifically to the footpaths and the walking sounds that their materials are likely to produce.

城市公园是当代城市必不可少的环境资源，可以为当地社区带来巨大的社会和心理缓解。近年来，已经广泛研究了声景方法在增强此类环境资产的生态贡献方面的潜力。虽然，研究人员倾向于将重点放在人们“留下来”的感知上在公园中，重要的是要考虑穿过公园的用户如何动态感知声音环境。在此框架内，本研究旨在调查不同行人通道材料对城市公园中行走的人的声景质量和行走质量感知的影响，考虑到此类用户的体验受公园的背景声环境和环境的影响。他们的步行声。为此，有25名参与者进行了实验室实验。测试了四种可能在城市公园中使用的步行材料：草，木材，石头和碎石。结果表明，物质因素对听觉和触觉均具有显着影响。此外，可以在听觉和触觉变量之间观察到正相关，这证实了在城市公园中行走的人们对声景的欣赏也可能会受到其他听觉感觉方式的影响。该论文最终指出，可以重新考虑城市公园设计的方法，更具体地讲，考虑其材料可能产生的人行道和步行声。