Search

Highlights •We compare the use of PPGIS and Flickr in landscape value assessments. •Landscape values and their spatial patterns are compared across sites. •We find more cross-site differences than similarities both in spatial patterns and value types. •PPGIS elicits a wider spectrum of values, while Flickr mainly elicits relationships to and with landscapes. •We recommend a complementary use in future landscape value studies. Abstract In this study, we bring together participatory mapping and analysis of geolocated social media content from the Flickr platform in an assessment of similarities and differences in their utility for landscape value elicitation. We do so in a Pan-European context comparing types of landscape values and their spatial patterns across 19 case sites in 11 European countries. Across these sites, we find great variety in volume, types and spatial patterns of landscape values elicited from participatory mapping by local people and opportunistic use of tags and image locations crowdsourced from Flickr. Most agreement in spatial patterns across the two data sets are found in densely populated landscapes; however, comparison of types of perceived landscape values is challenged by the differing assumptions of each value elicitation technique. We argue for the complementary potential of both approaches and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of using the two together in landscape research, planning and management. An integrated approach is likely to increase the inclusiveness of landscape value assessments.

Context It is essential for policy-making and planning that we understand landscapes not only in terms of landscape ecological patterns, but also in terms of their contribution to people's quality of life. Objectives In this study our objective is to test relationships between landscape ecology and social science indicators, by investigating how landscape patterns are linked to people’s perception of landscape quality. Methods To assess public views on landscapes we conducted a survey among 858 respondents in Switzerland. We combined this survey data on perceived landscape quality and place attachment with landscape metrics (e.g. diversity, naturalness of land cover, urban sprawl, fragmentation) in a statistical model to test hypotheses about the relationships between the different variables of interest. Results Our results illustrate the contribution of both landscape composition metrics and social science indicators to understanding variation in people’s perception and assessment of landscape. For example, we found the landscape ecology metrics on urban sprawl and fragmentation to be a negative predictor of overall satisfaction with landscape, and that perceived landscape quality positively predicted place attachment and satisfaction with the municipality landscape. Conclusions This study highlights the importance and feasibility of combining landscape ecology metrics and public survey data on how people perceive, value and relate to landscape in an integrated manner. Our approach has the potential for implementation across a variety of settings and can contribute to holistic and integrated landscape assessments that combine ecological and socio-cultural aspects.

Protecting tranquil areas is becoming an important objective for landscape planning and management. In order to identify where people experience tranquillity, we developed a hybrid approach combining field-based interviews with an analysis of social media content in the form of photographs with associated tags and coordinates from the photo-sharing website Flickr. In a case study in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park in Scotland, interviewed respondents reported high tranquillity ratings even when relatively close to roads and traffic noise. Mapping the distribution of Flickr photographs revealed that many people took photographs and tagged them with words related to tranquillity in easily accessible areas, often close to water bodies. Our results indicate that people find tranquillity in certain landscapes despite the presence of other people or traffic noise, which highlights the importance of taking into account tranquillity ‘as experienced’ for the purposes of planning and policy-making.

People living in increasingly urbanised areas are seeking restorative environments for recreation. Consequently, the need arises to identify and map such tranquil spaces. However, collecting in situ data across large areas about where people experience tranquillity is usually cost-prohibitive. In this study, we use social media data from the photosharing platform Flickr to explore the experience of tranquillity in Scotland. We developed a novel methodology that combines the metadata of photographs (location and textual tags) and the content of photographs to explore where tranquillity is experienced within the landscape, and which factors influence tranquillity. Mapping locations of photographs with tags related to tranquillity reveals areas of experienced tranquillity across Scotland that are relatively easily accessible by road, for example along the West Coast, as well as near inland water bodies. Users also uploaded tranquil photographs in urban areas, but less than expected compared to the density of general Flickr uploads in these areas. Based on the content of photographs, the presence of water bodies, boats and special atmospheric conditions (e.g. sunset) were identified as significant factors influencing experienced tranquillity. Furthermore, we found no relation between potential quiet areas and the locations where people uploaded photographs with tranquil tags. This study highlights the potential of a hybrid approach to social media data analysis for exploring people's place-based experiences. By focusing on where people experience tranquillity in the landscape, our results are complementary to existing approaches modelling the potential for tranquillity and have important implications for how we conceptualise and model tranquillity as experienced by people.

Data contributed by a large number of non‐experts is increasingly used to validate and curate land cover data, with location‐based games (LBGs) developed for this purpose generating particular interest. We here present our findings on StarBorn, a novel LBG with a strong focus on game play. Users conquer game‐tiles by visiting real‐world locations and collecting land cover data. Within three months, StarBorn generated 13,319 land cover classifications by 84 users. Results show that data are concentrated around users’ daily life spaces, agreement among users is highest for urban and industry land cover, and user‐generated land cover classifications exhibit high agreement with an authoritative data set. However, we also observe low user retention rates and negative correlations between number of contributions and agreement rates with an authoritative land cover product. We recommend that future work consider not only game play, but also how motivational aspects influence behavior and data quality. We conclude that LBGs are suitable tools for generating cost‐efficient in‐situ land cover classifications.

The growing demand for a variety of outdoor recreation pursuits in peri-urban areas evokes the need for effective landscape management strategies based on reliable information about recreationists, their preferences and use of the landscape. Although a variety of methods are available for gathering this information, there is a lack of understanding if and how results from these methods are comparable. In this study we apply both direct engagement methods in the form of interviews (incl. participatory mapping, free-listing and quantitative photo ranking) and indirect engagement methods by analysing social media content (location, tags and photo content). The goal was to gather and compare data on outdoor recreation preferences in two study areas, one in the Netherlands and one in Switzerland. We found similar landscape preferences among study areas through both types of engagement methods. Our results indicate that these methods in general consistently identify similar landscape preferences. However, we also found differences regarding the type of information they manage to capture. For instance, for gathering landscape preferences, we found that free-listing and social media user tags, captured attributes related to the social and cultural appreciation of landscapes, including sensory qualities of a landscape and sense of place. The results highlight the potential of complementary approaches for capturing heterogeneous information needed for outdoor recreation research and, more generally, for landscape monitoring and management. Combining multiple methods enables relatively robust findings to be identified, but also addresses different aspects of landscape appreciation from different user groups.

The concept of ecosystem services is increasingly important for measuring both tangible and intangible benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems. Much research on ecosystem services focused on more tangible services. Intangible cultural ecosystem services, such as sense of place, are often neglected, but in the context of highly populated, increasingly urbanized countries, maintenance of cultural ecosystem services is an important policy objective. One of the challenges of integrating sense of place into the framework of ecosystem services is that it is not linked to abstract notions of ecosystems, but tied to perceived landscape features such as mountains, or rivers. In this study, we used free listings and interviews with visitors to investigate perceived landscape features and sense of place through the lens of language in five different landscape types in Switzerland. Within each landscape type, we selected two study sites to quantitatively and qualitatively compare landscape descriptions. Using text processing, we show that terms for landscape features were more similar within the same landscape type, suggesting that people perceive differences between these landscapes that they express in language. However, in general, elicited concepts related to sense of place were similar across landscape types. Thus, our results show that we can use free-listing descriptions to distinguish landscape types, but we found limited differences in the language used to describe sense of place. Our findings offer insights into exploring sense of place in different landscapes and contribute to ongoing efforts for refining the definitions and standardizing assessments of cultural ecosystem services.

Acknowledgements The research for this paper was financially supported through the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the policies or official positions of the FOEN or the institutions they work for. We thank Rahul Deb Das for his assistance in data collection and processing. We gratefully acknowledge the comments and feedback of two anonymous reviewers.

Growing demand for outdoor recreation puts pressure on highly-frequented peri-urban areas. In the Netherlands, a more equal distribution of recreationists has been proposed by the Dutch government to relieve pressure on overcrowded recreation hotspots. Devising landscape planning strategies that redirect recreation flows requires reliable data on areas that people currently use and what areas would also be suitable for recreation. Such data may not be available for local planners. The objective of this study was therefore to analyse how different data gathering methods can support local recreation planning. For an empirical case study in the Netherlands, we compare data on current and potential use of landscapes for outdoor recreation through participatory mapping, free listing, quantitative photo ranking, and analysis of social media data. Based on maps produced from these different data we interviewed local planners to assess how applicable and relevant the different methods are for planning practice. Local planners indicated they had limited knowledge of and access to scientific methods and insights. Their assessment of different methods suggests that some methods are not yet applied for local planning, such as free listing or participatory mapping. These methods have potential to be used for evidence-based planning, because they require few resources to be implemented. Planners also indicated that using social media data would be interesting, but that the skills required to collect and analyse data are typically not currently in place. Our results show the potential and challenges for research methods to be integrated into local planning practice to distribute recreation flows more effectively.

Through a case study with Spanish-speaking Takana indigenous people in the Bolivian Amazon, we explored ethnoecological landscape categories, including their ecological underpinnings, cultural significance and hierarchical organisation. Using field walks and interviews with consultants, we elicited 156 ethnoecological landscape categories, 60 of which related to vegetation types. However, sorting exercises with landscape photographs revealed that vegetation was not a guiding organisation principle. Takana consultants organised ethnoecological landscape categories into geographical regions that contained different landscape features, including vegetation units, topographical or hydrological features. Comparing the documented ethnoecological landscape categorisation with a published scientific botanical classification of vegetation units, we observed some important conceptual differences, which in turn have implications for the management of such landscapes.

In the context of significant landscape changes, understanding how residents perceive landscape quality is crucial for landscape policy-making and planning. However, while significant advancements have been made in measuring physical landscape change, social indicators assessing visual landscape quality perceived by the public are still underdeveloped. In this study, we use an indicator-based assessment of visual landscape quality that was collected through a standardized questionnaire at national scale in Switzerland. The survey was sent out to a representative sample of over 8000 households, with 2814 complete questionnaires returned. We investigated the influence of different factors on how residents assess visual landscape quality. Our results show that across Switzerland, residents rated visual landscape quality of their municipality positively, with some differences between geographic regions. Using a multilevel model, we included explanatory variables both at the individual level and variables on landscape characteristics at the municipality level. How long residents have lived in a region and how well they can see the landscape in an unobstructed way (openness of view) are significant predictors of perceived landscape quality, while gender and educational attainment are not. At the municipality level, the type of municipality and the biogeographic region are significant predictors to explain variance between municipalities. Results from this indicator-based assessment of visual landscape quality among the general public highlight the importance of including public opinion, with results that can potentially be used as a baseline from which to assess future landscape change and effects of landscape policy-decisions.

The need to assess landscape qualities has become increasingly important over the past decades, with landscapes being continuously shaped and re-shaped through dynamic natural and anthropogenic processes. It is now widely recognised that landscapes need to be studied both in terms of their physical and ecological elements as well as how people living in or visiting landscapes perceive and interact with them. Different approaches have been developed over time for assessing these variegated aspects of landscape qualities, which range from methods in the natural sciences to the social sciences and humanities. Using the three examples of wilderness, tranquillity and dark skies as landscape qualities, we review existing quantitative and qualitative approaches to illustrate the potential of interdisciplinary landscape research. Furthermore, we highlight the potential of novel methodologies and data sources to study these landscape qualities, including the use of machine learning for automated image recognition, analysis of social media data (tags, location and image content), as well as citizen science approaches.

Explicitly linking text documents to geographical space is an important processing step for applications such as map visualization, spatial querying, and placename disambiguation. In this work, we present a proof-of-concept processing pipeline to generate spatial footprints for a spatially-rich, manually-annotated corpus of hiking blogs. We present preliminary results obtained by exploiting the spatially-focused nature of our input data and the rich placename resources at our disposal. Future work will fully automate the pipeline and systematically examine the influence of processing decisions on the footprints and downstream tasks.

Focusing on an overlapping protected area and indigenous territory in the Bolivian Amazon, this article discusses how indigenous people continue to negotiate access to natural resources. Using the theoretical framework of New Institutionalism, ethnographic data from participatory observations, and interviews with Takana indigenous resource users and park management staff, we identified four phases of institutional change. We argue that under the current institutionally pluralistic setting in the overlapping area, indigenous users apply “institutional shopping” to choose, according to their power and knowledge, the most advantageous institutional framework in a situation. Indigenous users strategically employed arguments of conservation, indigeneity, or long-term occupation to legitimize their claims based on the chosen institution. Our results highlight the importance of ideologies and bargaining power in shaping the interaction of individuals and institutions. As a potential application of our research to practice, we suggest that rather than seeing institutional pluralism solely as a threat to successful resource management, the strengths of different frameworks may be combined to build robust institutions from the bottom up that are adapted to the local context. This requires taking into account local informal institutions, such as cultural values and beliefs, and integrating them with conservation priorities through cross-cultural participatory planning.

GIScience 2016 Short Paper Proceedings Characterizing place: an empirical comparison between user-generated content and free-listing data F. M. Wartmann 1 , C. Derungs 1,2 , R.S. Purves 1,2 Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland Email: {flurina.wartmann; curdin.derungs; ross.purves}@geo.uzh.ch URPP Language and Space, University of Zurich, Freiestrasse 6, CH-8032 Zurich Abstract Methods to gather information from the public about place range from ethnographic approaches such as free listing to automatic extraction from user-generated content. We compared aspects of place (location, locale and sense of place) contained in free lists elicited from participants recruited on site with tags from georeferenced Flickr images. Using manual annotation we assigned content as toponyms (location), landscape elements (locale) and feelings (sense of place). Flickr tags contained more toponyms than free-listing data, but almost no information relating to feelings. Landscape elements were prominent in both data sets, with those captured by free lists and Flickr being cognitively more salient than those only captured by free listing, suggesting they represent basic levels. In Flickr, landscape elements consisted of basic levels in different languages (e.g. mountain, Berg), while free lists contained landscape elements both at the basic and subordinate level (e.g. Arvenwalder, arolla pine forests). We conclude that both methods yielded information about locale, with Flickr contributing basic levels and free lists also more detailed information, but that Flickr provided little information about sense of place compared to in situ free-listing elicitation with participants. 1. Introduction The importance of taking into account meanings people assign to places in management and planning is increasingly being recognized (Jones 2007; Prieur et al. 2006). However, collecting such information from the public is non-trivial, and different approaches are used, ranging from ethnographic work to extraction from user-generated content. Given the diversity of approaches, it is crucial to compare different approaches and understand what types of information are captured by different methods such that research on place can effectively capture relevant information. In this paper, we compare free-listing elicitation with automated extraction of place descriptions from user-generated content. In free-listing experiments, participants are asked to freely name examples of, for instance, categories they associate with the landscape they currently find themselves in (Bieling et al. 2014; Wartmann et al. 2015). Another method increasingly used is to automatically extract information from user-generated content, often in the form of image tags (e.g. Jenkins et al. 2016; Purves et al. 2011; Rattenbury and Naaman 2009). We compared these two methods based on the information about place they contained. 2. Methods We chose two sites in the Swiss Alps (Figure 1) where outdoor free listings on landscape categories had been conducted with 59 participants recruited on site (Wartmann et al. 2015). Terms were elicited with a Swiss German question that literally translates to: ‘what is there for you in a

Categorization is central to abstraction from real world geographic phenomena to computational representations, and as such has been the subject of considerable research. We report on one common approach, free listing, in an outdoor setting and explore terms elicited in response to the question 'What is there for you in a landscape?'. We collected term lists, and explanations for the strategies used from 89 participants in two mountain and one parkland setting. We analyzed results not only using term frequency, but also by cognitive saliency, exploring list structures, and building aggregated networks visualizing links between terms. We observed memory search strategies, such as exploiting and switching semantic clusters in our data, with participants using for example not only the local setting to start clusters, but also memories of familiar landscapes to switch between clusters. Our results reveal that simple free listing experiments can help us understand how categories are linked, and also highlight ways in which landscapes are conceptualized.

In addition to environmental factors, social variables such as group size may play an important role in explaining primate ranging patterns. In this study we investigated range sizes, site fidelity, and range overlaps of owl monkeys (Aotus azarae) in Northern Argentina. We calculated the size of home range and core areas for 18 groups in our study area. For the six most intensively studied groups we tested whether precipitation as a crude proxy for food availability or group size had an influence on range size, assessed the degree of site fidelity by quantifying overlaps of annual ranges and core areas, and calculated the amount of range overlap between neighboring groups for each year. We used the kernel density estimation method to calculate home ranges as 90% kernel and core areas as 50% kernel. Home range size (mean ± SD) was 6.2 ha (± 1.8) and core area size 1.9 (± 0.6). Rainfall and group size were not statistically significant predictors of range sizes. Site fidelity was high, with a range overlap of 82% (± 11) between consecutive years. Neighboring groups overlapped over 48% (± 15) of the outer parts of their group ranges and 11% (± 15) of their core areas. We found no evidence that larger groups occupy larger areas than smaller groups, suggesting that food availability might be above a critical threshold for owl monkeys so that larger groups do not need to extend their foraging areas to meet their energy requirements. Our findings indicate that ranges remain stable over several years as groups visit the same locations of fruit trees within their range. We showed that owl monkeys exhibit a considerable degree of range overlap. However, we suggest that this range overlap might be spatial rather than temporal, which maximizes access to clumped feeding resources in overlapping areas that are used at distinct times, while excluding other males from access to females in exclusively used areas. Fil: Wartmann, Flurina M.. University Of Zurich; Suiza Fil: Juárez, Cecilia Paola. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral; Argentina Fil: Fernandez Duque, Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral; Argentina

Are the contents of toponyms meaningless, as it is often claimed in linguistic literature, or can the generic parts in toponyms, such as hill in Black Hill, be used to infer landscape descriptions? We investigate this question by, firstly, linking gazetteer data with topographic characteristics, and, secondly, by conducting analysis of how the use of landscape terms might have changed over time in a historic corpus. We thus aim at answering a linguistic, and ethnophysiographic, research question through digital input data and processing. Our study area is Switzerland and our main focus is on geographic eminences, and in particular on the use of the terms Spitze, Horn and Berg. We show that most prominent generic parts in toponyms show expected topographic characteristics. However, not all generic parts strictly follow this rule, as in the case of Berg. Some generic parts have lost their meaning in standard language over time (e.g. Horn). We therefore put a cautionary note on the use of generic parts in toponyms in landscape studies, but point out that the subtle details of these differences provide rich topics for future research.

Quantification of the spatial needs of individuals and populations is vitally important for management and conservation. Geographic information systems (GIS) have recently become important analytical tools in wildlife biology, improving our ability to understand animal movement patterns, especially when very large data sets are collected. This study aims at combining the field of GIS with primatology to model and analyse space-use patterns of wild orang-utans. Home ranges of female orang-utans in the Tuanan Mawas forest reserve in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia were modelled with kernel density estimation methods. Kernel results were compared with minimum convex polygon estimates, and were found to perform better, because they were less sensitive to sample size and produced more reliable estimates. Furthermore, daily travel paths were calculated from 970 complete follow days. Annual ranges for the resident females were approximately 200 ha and remained stable over several years; total home range size was estimated to be 275 ha. On average, each female shared a third of her home range with each neighbouring female. Orang-utan females in Tuanan built their night nest on average 414 m away from the morning nest, whereas average daily travel path length was 777 m. A significant effect of fruit availability on day path length was found. Sexually active females covered longer distances per day and may also temporarily expand their ranges.