Sonic environment of Singapore Botanic Gardens and benchmarking with various urban gardens of the world

Abstract

The urban parks and gardens are usually surrounded by busy streets, commercial buildings and areas of high noise levels due to human activities and heavy traffic. These parks and gardens therefore have a unique function of providing relatively quiet areas to get away from the hustle and bustle of city lives. In this study, the sonic environment of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, which was the first UNESCO Heritage site in Singapore, was measured on various occasions and benchmarked with various urban gardens and parks around the world, namely the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid. St James’s Park in London, Old Botanical Gardens Hamburg, and Carlton Gardens in Melbourne. The Leq noise level was found to be compatible with the respective Leq noise level of the other urban parks and gardens. The sonic environment of the Singapore Botanic gardens was found to be dominated by cicada sound, human activities and water features. The sound level of various water features such as mini waterfalls and water fountains were also measured and analysed.