Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 105315 |
| Journal | Landscape and urban planning |
| Volume | 257 |
| Early online date | 9 Feb 2025 |
| Publication status | Published - May 2025 |
Abstract
Crowdsourced data are now well-established for assessing cultural ecosystem services (CES). In rural areas, understanding which land covers people prefer to recreate in, and how these land covers provide different CES, is necessary to support sustainable use. In this study, we aim to assess recreationists’ revealed preferences of landscape aesthetics and species observation as two CES, considering multiple land cover types in a rural area in France. This assessment was carried out using georeferenced images from two crowdsourced sources (Flickr and Wikiloc) and by analyzing their content using a machine-learning algorithm. We further developed a framework to classify images based on their content into CES-related images (those depicting landscapes or species) and non-CES-related images. Finally, we assessed how images depicting landscape aesthetics and species observation are distributed across the land covers visited by recreationists, and which species groups are the most photographed. Our results showed the dominance of images of open landscape views over close-up species images, and that grasslands are the primary providers of open views. In addition, we found that forests also provide open landscape views, suggesting that forests with gaps in canopy cover and viewpoints can be as important as grasslands in providing aesthetic views, especially in hilly landscapes. For species, the category “plants and flowers“ was the most photographed, followed by invertebrates and birds on Flickr, and domestic livestock on Wikiloc. This study provides insights into the importance of using multiple crowdsourced sources in CES assessment, providing critical insights for both landscape managers and conservationists.
Keywords
- Cultural ecosystem services, Image content analysis, Landscape aesthetics, Social media, Species observation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Environmental Science(all)
- Ecology
- Social Sciences(all)
- Urban Studies
- Environmental Science(all)
- Nature and Landscape Conservation
- Environmental Science(all)
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Sustainable Development Goals
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In: Landscape and urban planning, Vol. 257, 105315, 05.2025.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing recreationists’ preferences of the landscape and species using crowdsourced images and machine learning
AU - Chai-allah, Abdesslam
AU - Hermes, Johannes
AU - La Foye, Anne De
AU - Venter, Zander S.
AU - Joly, Frédéric
AU - Brunschwig, Gilles
AU - Bimonte, Sandro
AU - Fox, Nathan
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s)
PY - 2025/5
Y1 - 2025/5
N2 - Crowdsourced data are now well-established for assessing cultural ecosystem services (CES). In rural areas, understanding which land covers people prefer to recreate in, and how these land covers provide different CES, is necessary to support sustainable use. In this study, we aim to assess recreationists’ revealed preferences of landscape aesthetics and species observation as two CES, considering multiple land cover types in a rural area in France. This assessment was carried out using georeferenced images from two crowdsourced sources (Flickr and Wikiloc) and by analyzing their content using a machine-learning algorithm. We further developed a framework to classify images based on their content into CES-related images (those depicting landscapes or species) and non-CES-related images. Finally, we assessed how images depicting landscape aesthetics and species observation are distributed across the land covers visited by recreationists, and which species groups are the most photographed. Our results showed the dominance of images of open landscape views over close-up species images, and that grasslands are the primary providers of open views. In addition, we found that forests also provide open landscape views, suggesting that forests with gaps in canopy cover and viewpoints can be as important as grasslands in providing aesthetic views, especially in hilly landscapes. For species, the category “plants and flowers“ was the most photographed, followed by invertebrates and birds on Flickr, and domestic livestock on Wikiloc. This study provides insights into the importance of using multiple crowdsourced sources in CES assessment, providing critical insights for both landscape managers and conservationists.
AB - Crowdsourced data are now well-established for assessing cultural ecosystem services (CES). In rural areas, understanding which land covers people prefer to recreate in, and how these land covers provide different CES, is necessary to support sustainable use. In this study, we aim to assess recreationists’ revealed preferences of landscape aesthetics and species observation as two CES, considering multiple land cover types in a rural area in France. This assessment was carried out using georeferenced images from two crowdsourced sources (Flickr and Wikiloc) and by analyzing their content using a machine-learning algorithm. We further developed a framework to classify images based on their content into CES-related images (those depicting landscapes or species) and non-CES-related images. Finally, we assessed how images depicting landscape aesthetics and species observation are distributed across the land covers visited by recreationists, and which species groups are the most photographed. Our results showed the dominance of images of open landscape views over close-up species images, and that grasslands are the primary providers of open views. In addition, we found that forests also provide open landscape views, suggesting that forests with gaps in canopy cover and viewpoints can be as important as grasslands in providing aesthetic views, especially in hilly landscapes. For species, the category “plants and flowers“ was the most photographed, followed by invertebrates and birds on Flickr, and domestic livestock on Wikiloc. This study provides insights into the importance of using multiple crowdsourced sources in CES assessment, providing critical insights for both landscape managers and conservationists.
KW - Cultural ecosystem services
KW - Image content analysis
KW - Landscape aesthetics
KW - Social media
KW - Species observation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85217109121&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2025.105315
DO - 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2025.105315
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85217109121
VL - 257
JO - Landscape and urban planning
JF - Landscape and urban planning
SN - 0169-2046
M1 - 105315
ER -