Patients in general wards are often exposed to excessive levels of noise and activity, and high levels of noise have been associated with depression and anxiety. Previous studies have found that an appropriate acoustic environment is beneficial to the patient's therapeutic and treatment process; however, the soundscape is rarely intentionally designed or operated to improve patient recovery, especially for psychological rehabilitation. To gain the most accurate, and least variable, estimate of acoustic environmental stimuli/properties, virtual reality (VR) technology should be used to ensure that other environmental factors are stable and uniform in order to reduce the stimulation of other environmental factors. Therefore, this study aims to discuss the influence of the acoustic environment on patient physiological/psychological indicators and the mechanism of the effect on recovery using VR technology. A digital three-dimensional model of a hospital room was constructed, and experimental subjects wore VR glasses to visualize a real ward scene. Four typical sound categories were selected to analyze the effect of the acoustic environment on recovery, and physiological indicators were monitored and psychological factors were subjectively evaluated. The results show that music plays an important role in reducing stress as it can aid in a patient’s physiological (skin conduction levels) and psychological stress recovery. Furthermore, mechanical and anthropogenic sounds exert negative effects on a patient’s stress recovery. However, the effect is only limited to psychological stress indicators. The interaction effects of demographic characteristics and the acoustic environment are not significant, and future studies could consider the social-economic characteristics of patients. Based on these findings, we provide evidence that indicates that a hospital’s acoustic environment is an important influencing factor on the stress recovery of patients, and can serve as a reference for healthcare architects and policy makers.

The visual quality of architectural heritage is crucial to the preservation of architectural features, enhancement of the environmental quality, and conservation of the sustainable development and adaptive use of architectural heritage. Few studies have explored the visual behavior characteristics of rural architectural heritage and which elements influence visual perception. Our study used eye-tracking technology to explore this issue. The results indicate that participants have different visual behavior characteristics for architectural heritage in different scenarios, with five eye movement metrics showing statistical differences. Featured elements attracted more visual attention. The visual behavior characteristics were related to the area, relative area, distance from center, and perimeter. Based on the results, decision-makers can target the sustainable and virtuous development of architectural heritage and enhance environmental quality.

Urbanization has exposed people to extreme sound levels. Although researchers have investigated the ability of people to listen, analyze, and distinguish sound, the concept of noise has not been clearly articulated from a human perspective. The lack of knowledge on how people perceive noise limits our capacity to control it in a targeted manner. This study aimed to interpret the definition of noise from the public perspective based on a grounded theory approach. Seventy-eight participants were interviewed about noise, and four categories of perceived understanding of noise were identified: challenges, definitions of noise, opportunities, and action. As one of the challenges, urbanization is associated with increased noise levels around the human environment. In terms of definition, perceiving sound as noise is considered to be a result of the complex and dynamic process that includes sound, the environment, and humans. Sound and humans interact with the environment. In terms of opportunities, noise may have positive roles on certain occasions, dispelling the misconception that noise is exclusively negative. In addition, we found that noise perception has gradually shifted from noise control to noise utilization. In terms of action, noise can be controlled at the sound sources, susceptible target groups, susceptible behaviors and states, locations, and times where noise is perceived with high frequency. In this study, we investigated several aspects of noise, ranging from noise control, soundscape definition, and ‘soundscape indices’ (SSID) integration and application. Our findings provide an additional basis for developing better definitions, control, and utilization strategies of noise in the future, thereby improving the quality of the sound environment.

Since socio-economic development is associated with artificial construction, heritage environments must be protected and renewed while adapting to such development. Many World Heritage Sites’ visual integrity is endangered by new construction. The paper aims to explore people’s visual focus patterns concerning the integrity of heritage to ensure that traditional culture is not endangered by the construction and development of modern life, and to protect Outstanding Universal Values. In this study, visual heatmaps are generated to investigate people’s visual integrity in the Historic Centre of Prague from micro to macro viewpoints using an eye tracker. We found that humans’ perspectives are unobstructed or concentrated, and the view of main attractions is generally maintained by a buffer zone. However, newly constructed high-rise buildings can result in major visual concerns. Therefore, new buildings with large heights and strong contrasting colours should be restricted to World Heritage Sites. Moreover, complex artistic effects (facade midline, domes, mural painting, faces of sculptures) will likely attract people’s attention. In contrast, visual focus is not concentrated on greenery, roofs and floors. Accordingly, greenery could become a flexible space to serve as a background for buildings and landscape nodes. Furthermore, visual focal factors are associated with two significant aspects: people and the environment. Since people and transportation could pose visual concerns, tourism managers should optimise for characteristics such as controlling the density of pedestrian flow and planning parking spaces. The visual patterns identified could be useful for the design, conservation, and management of visual integrity in cultural heritage sites to avoid the spread of artificial constructions within the boundaries of heritage sites, which may lead to their being endangered or delisted.