Using crowdsourced imagery to detect cultural ecosystem services: a case study in South Wales, UK

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Within ecological research and environmental management, there is currently a focus on demonstrating the links between human well-being and wildlife conservation. Within this framework, there is a clear interest in better understanding how and why people value certain places over others. We introduce a new method that measures cultural preferences by exploring the potential of multiple online georeferenced digital photograph collections. Using ecological and social considerations, our study contributes to the detection of places that provide cultural ecosystem services. The degree of appreciation of a specific place is derived from the number of people taking and sharing pictures of it. The sequence of decisions and actions taken to share a digital picture of a given place includes the effort to travel to the place, the willingness to take a picture, the decision to geolocate the picture, and the action of sharing it through the Internet. Hence, the social activity of sharing pictures leaves digital proxies of spatial preferences, with people sharing specific photos considering the depicted place not only "worth visiting" but also "worth sharing visually." Using South Wales as a case study, we demonstrate how the proposed methodology can help identify key geographic features of high cultural value. These results highlight how the inclusion of geographical user-generated content, also known as volunteered geographic information, can be very effective in addressing some of the current priorities in conservation. Indeed, the detection of the most appreciated nonurban areas could be used for better prioritization, planning, and management.

Mapping the intangible: Using geolocated social media data to examine landscape aesthetics

“…Although Panoramio and Instagram provide a similar coverage (van Zanten et al, 2016b) and could be valid sources, Instagram restricts research availability and Panoramio ceased operation after 2016. Flickr data is also the main data source for previous CES assessments (Dunkel, 2015;Gliozzo et al, 2016;Tenerelli et al, 2016;Thiagarajah et al, 2015;Yoshimura and Hiura, 2017). To use Flickr photos for the LA-flow assessment, it is hypothesized that people who take photos of landscapes (and upload them to the Flickr platform) consider those landscapes to be aesthetically pleasing.…”

Quantifying scenic areas using crowdsourced data

“…Visual analysis and a statistical analysis of the correlation between these ranks suggests that our model generates better estimates of the ranking of scenic ratings in rural areas than in suburban and urban areas (urban: We found no evidence in support of our hypothesis that travel photographers would give us a useful metric of the scenicness of an area. Visual analysis of the photographs uploaded by the most prolific Flickr travel photographers reveals that many of them use Flickr for curated content such as bus and train spotting (an observation also reported by Gliozzo et al, 2016). If the primary motivation of many of the photographers on Flickr is only to post content on a particular subject, then this would distort the estimate that Flickr data may provide of the scenicness of an area.…”

“…Here, we begin to investigate whether data from Flickr could be used to estimate scenicness ratings for any location without the requirement of gathering new Scenic-Or-Not ratings. Geotagged Flickr images have already been shown to be of value in identifying people's preferences for specific places (Girardin et al, 2008;Gliozzo et al, 2016;Tenerelli et al, 2016;Wood et al, 2013). We envisage that we might be able to capture the scenicness of an area through Flickr data, as people might share more photos of places they find to be picturesque, or may reveal the scenicness of an area through descriptions they add to the shared image.…”

“…Increasingly, this online activity is being geographically tagged, which has already lead to a range of fascinating insights into our interactions with our surrounding environment (Batty, 2013;Botta et al, 2015;Casalegno et al, 2013;Dunkel, 2015;Dykes et al, 2008;Girardin et al, 2008;Gliozzo et al, 2016;Goodchild, 2007;Graham and Shelton, 2013;Haklay et al, 2008;King, 2011;Lazer et al, 2009;Moat et al, 2014;O'Brien et al, 2014;Preis et al, 2013;Seresinhe et al, 2015Seresinhe et al, , 2016Stadler et al, 2011;Sui et al, 2013;Tenerelli et al, 2016;Vespignani, 2009;Wood et al, 2013;Zaltz Austwick et al, 2013). For instance, to investigate whether such data can help us understand the relationship between aesthetics and human wellbeing, Seresinhe et al (2015) consider data from Scenic-Or-Not, a website that crowdsourced ratings of scenicness for 1 km grid squares of Great Britain.…”

Integrating Social Values and Ecosystem Services in Systematic Conservation Planning: A Case Study in Datuan Watershed

“…In fact, a growing number of conservation studies have also relied on social media platforms to extract data [32][33][34]; other studies have discussed the reliability of crowdsourced data [31,35,36]. For example, contributed geographic information (CGI), volunteered geographic information (VGI), citizen sensors or collaborative information with social media platforms have been utilized for aesthetic evaluations of the landscape [37][38][39][40][41], place-specific psychological attachment [42], or local identity and existence values [43]. Many of the above-mentioned studies have used interesting methods to assess social values, such as analyzing the number of photographs taken of specific sites to quantify the place-specific importance of cultural ecosystem services [41,43].…”