Historical sensing: the spatial pattern of soundscape occurrences recorded in poems between the Tang and the Qing Dynasties amid urbanization

Tapping urban and soundscape heritage in urban forests contributes to the conservation and utility of cultural heritage. However, urban heritage and soundscapes might be damaged by urban renewal and geological changes. Poems describing urban and soundscape heritage have been poorly researched due to the obscurity, fragmentation, and inaccessibility of historical materials. This study explores the tendencies of ancient poets toward poetized locales and soundscapes and investigates the present conservation of cultural heritage. This study uses historical sensing to assess the spatial information and auditory sensations about cultural heritage in poems through manual collation. Most of the sites in the poems are currently distributed in urban green spaces with good greenery conditions. These sites are mostly located in the downtown area (38.1%) and outskirts (38.1%) of Fuzhou and are well-preserved urban heritage sites. Generally, the poets preferred to describe birds chirping and visited sites with high forest coverage, such as mountains. The methodology of this study can provide a reference for other research on urban and soundscape heritage, helping with the excavation of natural culture and historical resource conservation in cities.

Hanzheng Lin, Jia-Bing Wang, Xuewei Zhang, Fangbing Hu, Jiang Liu, Xin-Chen Hong