Soundscape evaluation and integrated humanist ecology of audiovisual sense in Hangzhou Gongshu section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal

Located at the end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal,Hangzhou has a historical and cultural heritage with an abundance of acoustic and visual landscape.The paper introduces the concept of“soundscape”into the canal landscape design,and analyzes its characteristics through documentary analysis,questionnaire method,soundscape walk method,grid method and statistical analysis method.Besides,GIS is also used to present the analysis in a visualized way.The study adopt the increase,decrease and protect design methods which are commonly used in soundscape and the landscape combination methods derived from the classic landscape rules.Eventually,the design is performed in a targeted manner from the perspective of the integrated design of vision and soundscape,offering a optimum proposal and construction strategy.It is hoped that it can promote the design of the integrated acoustic-visual environment of the canal so as to improve the overall spatial environment quality of the urban canal.

Seasonal snow cover patterns explain alpine treeline elevation better than temperature at regional scale

Unprecedented modern rates of warming are expected to advance alpine treelines to higher elevations,but global evidence suggests that current treeline dynamics are influenced by a variety of factors.Seasonal snow cover has an essential impact on tree recruitment and growth in alpine regions,which may in turn influence current treeline elevation;however,little research has been conducted on its role in regional treeline formation.Based on 11,804treeline locations in the eastern Himalayas,we extracted elevation,climate,and topographic data for treeline and snowline.Specifically,we used linear and structural equation modelling to assess the relationship between these environmental factors and treeline elevation,and the climate-snow-treeline interaction mechanism.The results showed that the treeline elevation increased with summer temperature and permanent or seasonal snowline elevation,but decreased with snow cover days and spring temperature at the treeline positions(P<0.001).Importantly,spring snowline elevation(33.4%)and seasonal snow cover days(21.1%)contributed the most to treeline elevation,outperforming the permanent snowline,temperature,precipitation,and light.Our results support the assertion that the temperature-moisture interaction affects treeline elevation in the eastern Himalayas,but we also found that the effects were strongly mediated by seasonal snow cover patterns.The increasing tendency of snow cover governed by climate humidification observed in the eastern Himalayas,is likely to limit future treeline advancement and may even cause treeline decline due to the mortality of the remaining old trees.Together,our findings highlight the role of seasonal snow cover patterns in determining treeline elevation in the eastern Himalayas,which should be considered when assessing the potential for treeline ascent in snow-mediated alpine systems elsewhere.