Reacquainting with Everyday Urban Nature: Exploring Natural Soundscape Restoration with Personal Audio AR

Urban development reduces green space, disrupts wildlife, and increases noise, diminishing everyday exposure to natural soundscapes and weakening people’s connection to nearby nature. We explore restoring urban natural soundscapes with personal Audio AR to help people reacquaint with everyday nature, and observe associations with perceived nature connectedness, eco-awareness (noticing both existing and missing greenery), and reflection. We present GreenAR, a ubiquitous location-aware system that composes spatial, visually-congruent biophony (birds, insects) from OpenStreetMap greenery around the listener. We conducted three in-situ studies: (1) an error-resilient sound placement evaluation under urban GPS conditions (n=16); (2) a campus study comparing with/without restoration (day/night) (n=16); and (3) a week-long field deployment in five countries (n=12). Participants reported higher nature connectedness with restoration, heightened awareness of vegetation and urban wildlife, attention to green deficits along routes, and occasional micro‑actions. Notably, one participant described a reversal from opposing to supporting urban greening policies, highlighting the potential of everyday ambient soundscapes to shape reflection on urban nature.