| The elderly people have steadily become the main users of urban outdoor open spaces,creating the need for high-quality outdoor open spaces to provide older adults options for physical and mental well-being as part of the sustainable development of healthy cities.However,outdoor open spaces are complex environments composed of multiple stimuli,including thermal,visual and acoustic environment.Studies on the influence of single factors on human comfort cannot satisfactorily explain the changing characteristics of overall comfort.Moreover,as the elderly age,their sensitivity to the environment becomes less.But the multisensory changes in the outdoor open spaces of the elderly are currently not clearly characterized.In this study,we selected typical residential outdoor spaces and five common sounds(birdsong,dance music,traditional opera,conversation and traffic sound)with three A-weighted equivalent continuous sound pressure level(LAeq)(60,70 and 80 d BA)as visualacoustic-thermal conditions.Elderly adults completed a subjective questionnaire while environmental parameters(meteorological parameters,illumination intensity(LUX),visible green index(VGI)and LAeq)were simultaneously measured to determine effects of visualacoustic-thermal perceptions on overall comfort of elderly adults.The results demonstrated that:1)When physiological equivalent temperature(PET)was above 43.80 ℃,the elderly felt thermal discomfort.Older adults perceived traffic sound negatively when LAeq was higher than 66.1 d BA.Birdsong,traffic sound and conversation caused people to be more sensitive to LAeq changes compared to dance music and traditional opera.A higher VGI decreased the sensitivity of respondents to LUX.2)Thermal sensation and thermal comfort were susceptible to the acoustic and visual environments.The influence of the visual environment and PET on acoustic sensation and acoustic comfort were not significant(p>0.05).We found a significant correlation between PET and sunlight sensation(p<0.01).3)Individual comfort factors had significant influences on overall comfort(p<0.01).Thermal comfort was the most important factor affecting overall comfort in summer while acoustic comfort was the most important in spring.Thermal and acoustic comfort had a one-vote tendency with respect to overall comfort,but no absolute veto.The accumulation of discomfort for two or more environmental factors led to an increase in the overall discomfort ratio.4)We used a binary logistic regression model to predict overall comfort with subjective and objective parameters as predictors.The model had 84.7% predictive accuracy,indicating it could effectively predict the overall comfort of elderly adults.Our results contribute to the theory that describes mechanisms influencing multi-sensory perceptions on overall comfort and give design recommendation and technical guidance for creating healthy and enjoyable outdoor open spaces for aging adults. |
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