Beyond noise management: Exploring visitors’ perceptions of positive emotional soundscape dimensions

This paper built upon prior positive soundscapes research conducted within an urban context. It explored the potential for the emotional dimensions proposed by Cain and colleagues to be applied within a natural protected area (PA) context, at a soundscape level, as a complement to existing perceptual constructs of acceptability and personal interpretation (annoyance and pleasingness) of individual sounds. Visitor perceptions were measured (n = 898) for six soundscapes and individual sounds within Chile’s Coyhaique National Reserve (CNR), during the summer of 2018. Study results demonstrated parallels between the more urban-focused positive soundscapes work and sound perceptions within a PA context. The discussion focused on the potential and limitations of using Cain and colleagues’ emotional dimensions for PA soundscape evaluation, identifying benefits of a combined approach that also incorporates the perceptual constructs proposed by Miller and colleagues at an individual sound level.