Soundscape ecology of an urban green campus water body: A tale of two streams

Sounds from different sources – biophony, geophony and anthropophony surround and define the soundscape of an environment. In this study, soundscapes of two streams originating from the same hill of Rimba Ilmu Botanic Garden and the Faculty of Science of the Universiti Malaya were presented through an aural narrative, supported by quantitative analyses of the sounds using spectral analysis and spectral entropy analysis. The results were interpreted qualitatively based on the Natural Soundscape Quality (NSQ) framework. It was shown that the stream running through a natural landscape and the stream passing through a built environment produce contrasting soundscapes, with the former aligning to certain valence indicators of the NSQ framework. More importantly, this study adopted an ArtScience approach by combining robust soundscape signal analysis and eco-philosophy (or ecosophy) to raise awareness for ecological empathy and promote the protection of soundscape heritage, especially that of natural waterbodies and landscapes.