Naslov
Guidelines for the organization of urban green places that maximize bird sounds

Autori
Oostermeyer, Fran

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Ocjenski radovi, diplomski rad, diplomski

Fakultet
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering

Mjesto
Gent, Belgija

Datum
24.06

Godina
2015

Stranica
109

Mentor
Botteldooren, Dick

Neposredni voditelj
Filipan, Karlo

Ključne riječi
Bird sounds ; urban park ; spatial features

Sažetak
The soundscape in the urban public space encompasses not only disturbing sounds (e.g. traffic noise) but also pleasant sounds from birds and water for example. As it is often difficult to lower the soundlevel of the disturbing sound because of practical, political, economical, safety and/or aesthetic reasons, trying to increase the amount of pleasant sounds might be a solution. In this master dissertation, the focus was on bird sound. One can easily add those bird sounds by installing loudspeakers or hang birdcages filled with birds in a park. As those artificial solutions are not in harmony with the modern vision on the management of urban green places, the most environmentally friendly solution is to make the environment more attractive for birds so it becomes their habitat. To achieve those goals, an urban green area that is disturbed by traffic sound is studied to identify its features that result in more frequent bird sound. The subject in this study is the Rivierenhof park inAntwerp which is completely surrounded by large roads, namely the highway E34 in the south, the Ruggeveldlaan in the east, the N12 in the north and the A12 in the west. Additionally the Hooftvunderlei traverses the park in a north-south direction. Several sport clubs and hobby societies have their infrastructure located in Rivierenhof. Researchers of the INTEC Acoustics group (UGent) have performed mobile measurements in the Antwerp city park Rivierenhof on the 5th and 6th of August 2013, each day encompassing eight hours with three measurement devices. During these walks, both continuous sound and GPS signals were recorded. In the first phase of this thesis research, continuously recorded audio signal from the measurements is assessed on the presence of bird song. These ‘bird sound’ fragments were extracted and listened again to determine a more precise categorization in bird sounds. This categorization was determined based on a broad category of clearly distinguishable bird sounds (“Columbidae”, “Songbird”, “Carrion crow”, “Western jackdaw”, “Duck” “Goose” and “Gull”) and on the sound level of the sound (“highly” or “slightly”). In total 14 categories were determined. Through combination with the GPS signal, the location of the different bird sounds were plotted on a Rivierenhof park map. This map was created in QGIS, based on the ‘Groenlaag’ data that was made available by the city of Antwerp and the map of Rivierenhof that can be found on the website of the province of Antwerp. Different park elements were distinguished on the custom-made map, namely wood, pasture, water, paved attraction, unpaved attraction, dirt road, paved road, arboriculture, agriculture, highway and ornamental garden. For every GPS point registered during the walks and every GPS point registered as bird sound, the distance to the nearest occurrence for each park element was calculated. This distance matrix served as the basis for all further statistical analysis. This analysis contained descriptive statistics, multinomial logistic regression and factor analysis. Lastly, sound levels and percentage of bird sounds were also linked to the distance from the highway. To interpret the results, one must first determine which birds one wants to attract to the park area. Columbidae, gulls and geese are commonly not appreciated when they are present in large amounts. Columbidae can be kept out by adjusting the building in terms of ridges and holes. For all three bird species, garbage and leftover food can be an important factor in attracting them, thus sufficient amounts of adapted dustbins should be present in the park. However, last year 262 invasive geese were euthanized in Rivierenhof. Therefore one needs to pay attention to natural measures to make the park less attractive for geese. This relates mainly to measures that make the transition from landto water more difficult. The appreciation of carrion crows and western jackdaws differs between people and the amount of birds present. This study shows no clear link between the preference towards specific park elements and the presence of those birds, although they belong to the same family. There is a positive correlation between the presence of ducks and songbirds and the park elements water and wood. In Rivierenhof, different types of water are present, namely the river Schijn, the artificial ponds and the more natural ponds. Increasing the amount of wood would be beneficial for these birds, but on the other hand it also increases the chance for litter and decreases the feeling of safety for the visitors. There is not much information available in the studied literature on the use of artificial measures (like birdhouses and bird feeders) to attract birds in parks. Normally the general rule applies that birds cannot be fed in the park, but feeding birds improves the interactions between wildlife and humans. The importance of this interaction in the increasing urbanized space may not be underestimated. Finally, a clear increase in the amount of bird sound has been found with increasing distance from the highway. On top of this, many visitors complain about the disturbing influence of the highway during a walk in Rivierenhof. Therefore, a possible solution could be a noise barrier shielding noise from the highway inside the park.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Elektrotehnika, Geografija

POVEZANOST RADA