A Graph Theory approach to assess nature’s contribution to people at a global scale

Abstract

The use of Graph Theory on social media data is a promising approach to identify emergent properties of the complex physical and cognitive interactions that occur between humans and nature. To test the effectivity of this approach at global scales, Instagram posts from fourteen natural areas were selected to analyse the emergent discourse around these areas. The fourteen areas, known to provide key recreational, educational and heritage values, were investigated with different centrality metrics to test the ability of Graph Theory to identify variability in ecosystem social perceptions and use. Instagram data (i.e., hashtags associated to photos) was analysed with network centrality measures to characterise properties of the connections between words posted by social media users. With this approach, the emergent properties of networks of hashtags were explored to characterise visitors’ preferences (e.g., cultural heritage or nature appreciation), activities (e.g., diving or hiking), preferred habitats and species (e.g., forest, beach, penguins), and feelings (e.g., happiness or place identity). Network analysis on Instagram hashtags allowed delineating the users’ discourse around a natural area, which provides crucial information for effective management of popular natural spaces for people.

Assessing landscape features and ecosystem services of marine protected areas through photographs on social media: comparison of two archipelagos in Spain

“…With this study, we compare two marine protected areas in Spain that have little official available information on their visitors' profiles and preferences. Although the methodological approach has already been put into practice previously (Ruiz-Frau et al, 2020), and has proven to be cost-effective (de Juan et al, 2021), here we verify its usefulness to describe visitors' perception, as well as their recognition of the ecological values of the visited natural areas. We also generate information that can be useful for the policy makers to locally manage the studied areas.…”

“…In general, data shared on social media allow for the assessment of tourists' preferences for ecosystem attributes in protected natural areas (Hausmann et al, 2018). More specifically, digital photographs can be used to examine the characteristics of the landscape, and indirectly inform about the cultural services provided by iconic ecosystems (de Juan et al, 2021;Retka et al, 2019). Furthermore, the geolocation of the images published online is an efficient indicator of the volume of visits and their preferences for different recreational places (Wood et al, 2013).…”

Magnifier or refractor? Exploring the impact of geographical indication on people’s perception of the value of cultural ecosystem services based on the SolVES model

“…(ii) The actual content of individual photographs is analyzed in order to classify them based on specific elements in the photographs (Ghermandi et al, 2020). The context and content of the photographs were classified into CESs categories based on the presence or absence of landscape elements in the photographs, such as flora and fauna landscapes, historical buildings or tourism infrastructure and facilities (de Juan et al, 2021). The categories of CESs of the photographs and the corresponding amount of value were annotated by the participants in the corresponding questionnaires.…”

Editorial: Sustainable Development Goal 14 - Life Below Water: Towards a Sustainable Ocean

“…Other ecosystem services provided by the Ocean are also yet to be properly considered. These include the cultural and spiritual services provided by the Ocean (Brown and Hausner, 2017;de Juan et al, 2021), which have developed over millennia of human relationships with the Ocean and represent knowledge and connections that extend beyond monetary value. Aiming to integrate this knowledge in scientific endeavours, many indigenous peoples are bringing their traditional science and knowledge to partner with western science (Mazzocchi, 2006) and provide a more in-depth and long-term understanding of the Ocean, especially in coastal areas (Mustonen et al, 2021).…”