Applications - Soundscape Ecology: Principles, Patterns, Methods and Applications - page 273

requires continuous monitoring. In a recent investigation carried out in the
biosphere reserve of the “Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer” on the island of
Hallig Hooge (Germany), by Kalish and Klaphake ( 2007 ), only 20 % of visitors
reported the presence of a large number of visitors. People more sensitive to
crowding were non-guided day visitors; the guided visitors were more tolerant.
This study represents a good example of monitoring of the tourism process and of
the potential impact on the environment and on the visitors themselves.
Crowding produced by visitors in a natural park is of growing concern to
planners. This phenomenon is not easy to evaluate because of the great variability
of its assessment introduced by the different categories of park visitors. For this
reason, crowding is often expressed as “perceived crowding” (PC).
Perceived crowding (PC) seems connected with perceived sounds and this effect
is connected with the type of sound stimuli. Children playing, airplanes, truck
engines, birds, water, and a control were the acoustic signals administered in an
experiment conducted by (Kim and Shelby 2011 ). Topography, geography, and trip
characteristics influenced perceived crowding too. Areas with low use are reported
accurately by respondents of questionnaires but in areas with high use (high density
of visitors) this value is underreported and more experienced users perceive the
areas with more PC than normal people.
Wilderness users appreciate backpackers more than horseback riders and several
small groups more than a few large groups. Bad behavior by visitors such as noise,
yelling, and littering produces a feel of more crowding in respondents although the
density is the same. Wilderness users prefer encounters near the road rather than in
remote areas; the same is true for boaters close to the accesses compared to the
middle of lakes.
Sounds have a role in the rating of perceived crowding and encounter norms.
Natural sounds such as water and birds decrease PC and increase the tolerance to
seeing other park visitors. An increase of PC and intolerance is produced by
technological sounds (airplanes, trucks). The sound of children playing had ambig-
uous behavior: at low density of encounters this parameter was considered negative,
but in high-density conditions it was considered positive.
The density of park visitors increases the effect of sound changes (Fig. 10.5 ).
Sound is more important in the backcountry than in the forecountry.
The human voice is an important source of concern in natural parks and an
educational effort should be made to reduce, at least in the proximity of very scenic
spots, talking and yelling. The indication of a quiet area is just an efficient
procedure to reduce voice-borne noise.
The human voice in some cases is the most annoying sound heard in a natural
park because this was an expected sound and talking and yelling damages the
aesthetic assessment of landscapes.
Benfield et al. ( 2010 ) have recently conducted an experiment using 251 under-
graduate students who viewed 30 park scenes (from Yellowstone, Olympic,
Saguaro, Grand Canyon, and Everglades National Parks, USA) while listening to