Studying the Spatial Distribution of Volunteered Geographic Data Through a Non-parametric Approach

Abstract

Nowadays, new knowledge on the immaterial characteristics of surrounding landscapes can easily be produced by relying on volunteer contributions. However, the spatial distribution of the collected data may be influenced by the contributor’s location. Using data sets derived from the administration of a map-based survey, aimed at collecting explicit spatial information on sites perceived as having positive and negative qualities in Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy), a descriptive analysis and a non-parametric procedure are employed to study the relevance of a respondent’s municipality of reference on the mapping activity. The findings indicate that the volunteered geographic data collected in the survey are not uniformly distributed across the study area and that a different spatial relationship exists between mapped elements and a respondent’s residence when the two different attributes of interest are considered. The results underline the importance of considering volunteers’ characteristics when engaging local populations in participatory initiatives.

Georeferencing skills and student profile. Results from a multivariate regression model

“…The main tools were online questionnaires and interactive mapping (see an example in Figure 1) (Amaduzzi et al, 2019;Bressan and Amaduzzi, 2020;Bressan, Guaran, Zaccomer, 2021). The focus was both the potential of Volunteered Geographic Information (Goodchild, 2007;Borruso, 2010;Yan et al, 2020) and the characteristics of the data collected (Fonte et al, 2017, Bressan, Zaccomer andGrassetti, 2020). In particular, the interest is on intrinsic quality of data (Bressan, 2021) and ability of users to correctly recognize and geolocate specific places (assigning locations to geographical objects) by online interactive maps.…”