## 4 Soundscape Evaluations and Influencing Factors
### A Comparison among the Four Blocks
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Factors**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**BLK-I**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**BLK-II**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**BLK-III**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**BLK-IV**} \\ \cline{3-10}  & **Anroy.** & **Acos.** & **Comf.** & **Anroy.** & **Acos.** & **Comf.** & **Anroy.** & **Acos.** & **Comf.** \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{\begin{tabular}{c} Sound \\ Source \\ \end{tabular} } & Natural Sound (\%) & 0.08 & 0.20 & 0.16 & 0.33 * & 0.08 & 0.09 & \(-\)0.18 & 0.04 \\  & Human Sound (\%) & \(-\)0.01 & \(-\)0.10 & 0.03 & \(-\)0.11 & 0.11 & 0.12 & 0.37 * & 0.13 \\  & Mechanical Sound (\%) & \(-\)0.03 & \(-\)0.03 & \(-\)0.21 & \(-\)0.25 & \(-\)0.24 & \(-\)0.27 & \(-\)0.13 & \(-\)0.16 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{\
\begin{tabular}{c} Sound \\ Level \\ \end{tabular} } & L\({}_{\text{Aeq}}\) (dBA) & \(-\)0.02 & 0.11 & \(-\)0.04 & \(-\)0.05 & 0.29 * & 0.09 & \(-\)0.30 * & \(-\)0.18 \\  & L\({}_{\text{00}}\) (dBA) & 0.01 & 0.03 & \(-\)0.11 & \(-\)0.22 & 0.20 & 0.17 & \(-\)0.29 * & \(-\)0.24 \\  & L\({}_{\text{50}}\) (dBA) & \(-\)0.04 & 0.06 & \(-\)0.09 & \(-\)0.15 & 0.32 * & 0.19 & \(-\)0.31 * & \(-\)0.21 \\  & L\({}_{\text{10}}\) (dBA) & \(-\)0.04 & 0.11 & \(-\)0.09 & \(-\)0.08 & 0.31 * & 0.11 & \(-\)0.29 * & \(-\)0.17 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{
\begin{tabular}{c} Psychoacoustic \\ Indices \\ \end{tabular} } & Loudness (sone) & \(-\)0.10 & 0.03 & \(-\)0.11 & \(-\)0.16 & 0.23 & 0.10 & \(-\)0.29 * & \(-\)0.20 \\  & Sharpness (acum) & \(-\)0.06 & 0.02 & \(-\)0.06 & \(-\)0.14 & 0.00 & \(-\)0.19 & \(-\)0.14 & \(-\)0.15 \\  & Roughness (asper) & \(-\)0.12 & \(-\)0.04 & 0.05 & \(-\)0.04 & 0.14 & 0.14 & \(-\)0.19 & \(-\)0.10 \\ \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Spatial function} & Exercise & Relaxation & Communication & Restoration \\ \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Identified Soundscape} & Artificial & Neutral–Natural & Neutral–Artificial & Natural \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Note: * represents significance at 0.05 level; Annoy. represents annoyance; Acos. Comf. represents acoustic comfort.  
\end{table} 
Table 5: Correlations between factors and soundscape evaluations in the four blocks. to be more annoying. For the exception, BLK-IV, the majority of the on-site sounds were natural sounds and more natural sounds meant a higher sound level that caused noisier perception because the users needed to lower the sound level for restoration in an open space. In summary, most of the acoustic and psychoacoustic factors were not significantly correlated with either the annoyance or acoustic comfort evaluations. Nevertheless, soundscape identification primarily related to sound sources influenced the annoyance and acoustic comfort evaluations. Although they did not reach a significant level, it is still useful to know that the blocks identified as having more natural soundscapes (BLK-IV and BLK-II) had negative correlations between the sound levels and loudness and the acoustic comfort evaluations, whereas the blocks identified as having more artificial soundscapes (BLK-I and BLK-III) had positive correlations between the sound levels and loudness and the acoustic comfort evaluations. These results suggest that a place tends to be more tolerant of high-level sounds if it is identified as having an artificial soundscape, whereas the opposite is true if a place is identified as having a natural soundscape. These results imply that a soundscape is not only determined by acoustic factors but also by other factors such as the spatial function. According to previous studies, the spatial function can influence a soundscape as an attribute related to the context of perceiving an acoustic environment [11; 36; 62]. In a place with a more natural soundscape (BLK-II and BLK-IV), the spatial function is relaxation or restoration (shown in Table 3) and a quiet circumstance may be required to satisfy a user's purpose, while in a place with a more artificial soundscape (BLK-I and BLK-III), the spatial function is exercise or communication (also seen in Table 3) and a quiet atmosphere may not be necessary to satisfy a user.