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Using volunteered geographic information to visualize community values and ecosystem services for habitat restoration and neighborhood revitalization
Citation:
Williams, K., J. Launspach, T. Angradi, Dave Bolgrien, J. Carlson, AND J. Hoffman. Using volunteered geographic information to visualize community values and ecosystem services for habitat restoration and neighborhood revitalization. A Community on Ecosystem Services, Jacksonville, Florida, December 05 - 09, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
Not applicable
Description:
Volunteered geographic information (VGI), specifically geotagged photographs available from social media platforms, is a promising technology that can be utilized to identify public values for ecosystem goods and services in a defined geographic area. VGI can help researchers indirectly survey and report on the values and preferences of communities involved in restoration and revitalization projects. We are using geotagged images from three social media platforms: Flickr, Instagram, and Panaramio. Images are obtained for the neighborhoods to the St. Louis River in the Duluth, MN and analyzed along several dimensions including the spatial distribution of images from each platform and the types and frequencies of social values and ecosystem service depicted. This study will demonstrate a method for translating the values of ecosystem goods and services as captured in social media into spatially-explicit data. Study outcomes are the incorporation of social media-derived indicators of ecosystems services into City of Duluth’s Comprehensive Planning and community revitalization efforts, habitat restoration in a Great Lakes Area of Concern, and the USEPA’s Office of Research and Development Sustainable and Healthy Community research.