Valuing Nature’s Soundscapes
Valuing the mental health and well-being benefits of nature engagement through measures of soundscape complexity
Listen to an example reconstructed soundscape:
The mental health and well-being benefits derived from nature are a globally important cultural ecosystem service. But the way in which this happens - and specific contributions of different elements of biodiversity - are not well understood.
Sound plays a key role in our experience of nature, with bird song in particular providing the soundtrack to time spent outdoors. This project combines ecoacoustics with approaches from environmental psychology and economics to better understand the relationships between landscape structure, soundscape complexity, perceptions of soundscape quality, derived mental health and well-being benefits, and economic values.
For more information, see our project website.
Conservation Ecology
Acoustic Ecology
Environmental Economics
Experimental Psychology
