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Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media

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A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Landscape Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 27733

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Dr. Cecilia Arnaiz Schmitz

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Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: social-ecological systems; urban–rural gradients; land planning; simulation scenarios; landscape structure; global change; socioeconomic models
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Nicolas Marine

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Guest Editor

Department of Architectural Composition, ETSAM Madrid School of Architecture, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: heritage management; cultural landscape; new media studies; cartography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. María F. Schmitz

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Guest Editor

Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: cultural landscape; social–ecological systems; landscape heritage; biocultural diversity; protected areas; nature-based tourism; landscape structure
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

At the end of the 20th century, documents like the World Heritage Guidelines or the European Landscape Convention proposed new and challenging ways of conceptualizing landscape assessment and governance. Consequently, in the last two decades, numerous countries have reevaluated their national planning systems and landscape conservation policies.

During the same time, social media has grown into an extensive source of data with a certain influence on how we regard spaces. Currently, numerous researchers are advocating the value of social media data to better comprehend ecosystem services provision, their use, and its intensity. Through this, we may also better comprehend how to recognize people's patterns of behavior, or how they perceive the landscape.

The relation between social media and current conceptualizations of landscape allows for pertinent questions: Is social media useful for administrations to recognize and adapt to changes in land use, patterns of mobility, or landscape meaning? Is it bringing a more democratic understanding of the landscape and its conservation? Does it serve local communities to express their feelings towards governance policies? Do any of these factors align with the concepts laid out by international organizations like the IUCN, UNESCO, or the European Council?

We invite you to delve into the relationship between contemporary forms of landscape valuation and governance and current social media. Possible lines of research include current connections of social media with:

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and governance decentralization;
Participatory scenario and land planning based on online technologies;
Multi-scale processes andsocial–ecological resilience;
Spatio–temporal patterns for the maintenance of the living landscape;
Sustainable governance and rural landscape stewardship;
User generated content (UGC) as a tool for landscape studies;
Inclusive and participatory land governance—a cross-country comparison.

Kind regards,

Dr. Cecilia Arnaiz Schmitz
Dr. Nicolas Marine
Prof. Dr. María F. Schmitz
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

user-generated content (UGC)
social media
cultural landscapes
landscape governance
participatory processes

Related Special Issue

Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media (Second Edition) in Land (2 articles)

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 7042 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Urban Forest Tweeting: Social Media as More-Than-Human Communication in Tokyo’s Rinshinomori Park

by Diego Martín Sánchez and Noemí Gómez Lobo

Land 2023, 12(4), 727; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12040727 - 23 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1498

Abstract

Urban parks are places that have significant impact on the physical and mental health of citizens, but they are also for safeguarding biodiversity and thus fostering human–nature interactions in the everyday landscape. The exploration of these spaces through social media represents a novel field of research that is contributing to revealing patterns of visitor behavior. However, there is a lack of comparable research from a non-anthropocentric perspective. What if we could use social media as a more-than-human communication medium? This research aims to reveal the possibility of communicating the urban forest’s voice through the examination of the official Twitter account of a metropolitan park in Tokyo. To this end, an analysis of the content of the messages is carried out, focusing on the narrative voice from which the message is told, the protagonists, the action performed, the network of actors deployed, and the place where it occurs. It is found that the majority of these messages are delivered from a non-human perspective, where plants, animals, or meteorological agents behave deploying complex networks of more-than-human interaction. The current study reveals the latent potential of non-humans as possible agents within the realm of social media, which can mediate the relationships between humans and their environment. It introduces a layer that can be incorporated into future lines of research, as well as provides a model case that illustrates a good practice in the management and communication of urban green spaces. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media)

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19 pages, 18727 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Contributions of Social Media to the Recognition, Assessment, Conservation, and Communication of Spanish Post-Industrial Landscapes

by Ángeles Layuno Rosas and Jorge Magaz-Molina

Land 2023, 12(2), 374; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12020374 - 30 Jan 2023

Viewed by 1533

Abstract

The paper aims to draft how phenomena such as abandonment, territorial disarticulation, environmental pollution, socioeconomic imbalances, and heritage consideration issues that surround landscapes where industrial activity has ceased are reflected on social media in Spain. The research focuses on the most popular social media platforms in Spain: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. A manual sample strategy was conducted to ensure an individualized approach to user-generated content. Sampling was carried out separately for three aspects: (1) keywords at a general level, (2) terms used to define industrial landscapes, and (3) recognition of significant industrial landscapes related to governmental facilities built in the 20th century, wherein we take into account three potential profile types: (i) individuals; (ii) NGOs/associations and/or public administrations; and (iii) academics. The results show that social media platforms are widely used as tools to disseminate information about industrial landscapes, but the contributions of each platform are uneven and incomplete in relation to the reality of post-industrial landscapes. However, it is worth recognizing the added value that their possible interaction brings as a reference for current civic debates. How social media contributes toward mitigating the difficulties of recognition, comprehension, and protection of post-industrial landscapes is emphasized in our conclusions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media)

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22 pages, 8581 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Postproduction in the Research on the Urban Cultural Landscape: From the Transfer of Results to the Exchange of Knowledge on Digital Platforms and Social Networks—The TRAHERE Project in Madrid

by Graziella Trovato

Land 2023, 12(1), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12010031 - 22 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1221

Abstract

The urban scenarios outlined by the environmental and economic crisis have fostered, on one hand, the unstoppable gentrification of the most central neighborhoods of the cities; and on the other hand, a growing associationism committed to cultural and environmental values, which demands tools from academia to negotiate with the administration. An emblematic case is that of Arganzuela, one of the three districts of the Spanish capital affected by the rise and fall of industrialization (the freight railway in 1861 and the M-30 ring road in 1970). The burying of these infrastructures began in 1990 with the Green Railway Corridor (PVF) operation, a year after the inauguration in Paris of the Promenade Plantée on the disused railway lands, which allows us to foreshadow new scenarios. The TRAHERE project researches the state of abandonment and disaffection of the public spaces of the PVF using social networks as a connection platform with participatory channels to promote its regeneration. The challenge is to convert the concept of transfer of results into a more inclusive one of knowledge exchange, which implies a methodological change in research, with an integrating perspective that combines urban historical studies with artistic practices of production and postproduction for the dissemination of content on the networks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media)

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19 pages, 3568 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Relationship between Habitat Diversity and Tourists’ Visual Preference in Urban Wetland Park

by Jiani Zhang, Xun Zhu and Ming Gao

Land 2022, 11(12), 2284; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11122284 - 13 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1673

Abstract

The increasing number of visitors to wetland parks has caused varying degrees of impact on wetland life. How to reduce the damage to wetland biodiversity caused by recreational activities in parks, improve tourists’ recreational experience, and balance the relationship between the two are urgent problems that need to be solved. Therefore, four urban wetland parks were selected as subjects for this study. The present study utilized social media data to study the diversity of urban wetland habitats and tourists’ wetland landscape preferences from the spatial dimension and explore the relationship between the two. This is a practice different from the traditional ecological research (survey, measurement, monitoring, questionnaire survey) of wetland habitat diversity assessment. The research revealed the following findings: (1) There was a significant positive correlation between habitat saturation and positive artificial elements, such as landscape structures and aerial walkways; (2) Landscape complexity is negatively correlated with landscape instantaneity and wilderness degree; (3) Habitat diversity was negatively correlated with landscape instantaneity but positively correlated with naturalness and positive artificial elements. This study proposes wetland habitat construction as a strategy to optimize the management of habitat diversity in urban wetland parks and enhance its ecological education function. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media)

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21 pages, 5685 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of the Image of Global Glacier Tourism Destinations from the Perspective of Tourists

by Fan Tang, Jianping Yang, Yanxia Wang and Qiuling Ge

Land 2022, 11(10), 1853; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11101853 - 20 Oct 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2238

Abstract

Glaciers are attracting increasing attention in the context of climate change, and glacier tourism has also become a popular tourist product. However, few studies have been conducted concerning the image of glacier tourism destinations. To address this gap in the literature, in this study, we extracted destination images from 138,709 visitor reviews of 107 glacier tourism destinations on TripAdvisor using latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling, identified destination image characteristics using salience−valence analysis (SVA), and analyzed the differences in glacier tourism destination image characteristics across seasons and regions. According to the findings, the image of a glacier tourism destination consists of 14 dimensions and 53 attributes, with landscapes and specific activities representing the core image and viewing location and necessity representing the unique image. We identified significant seasonal and regional differences in the image of glacier tourism destinations. Finally, we discussed the unique image of glacier tourism destinations, the reasons for differences in the images, and the characteristics of different glacier tourism regions. This research could assist in the scientific management of their core images by glacier tourism destinations, as well as in the rational selection of destinations and travel timing by glacier tourists. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media)

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25 pages, 6098 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on the Satisfaction of Beijing Waterfront Green Space Landscape Based on Social Media Data

by Siya Cheng, Zheran Zhai, Wenzhuo Sun, Yuan Wang, Rui Yu and Xiaoyu Ge

Land 2022, 11(10), 1849; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11101849 - 20 Oct 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2951

Abstract

Urban blue–green space is essential to the normal functioning of the urban landscape ecosystem, and it is also a significant metric for assessing the quality of urban human settlements. In China’s territorial space planning, the overall planning strategy’s implementation depends on constructing the blue–green space network in the urbanized construction area. This paper used 85 typical riverside parks in Beijing’s blue–green space as the research object, collecting and analyzing multiple social media user data. It explored the main factors that influenced people’s satisfaction with the landscape design and sensory perception of urban waterfront green space from the perspectives of parks beside different river systems, parks of different types, and parks in different districts. The distinction between urban waterfront green space evaluation was further discussed through variance analysis. The research revealed the following findings: (1) by comparing the total number of park reviews in different seasons, it could be observed that tourists evidently preferred the spring landscape, and the winter landscape construction of waterfront green space needs to be improved. (2) By comparing the review stars of different parks, it could be observed that tourists appreciated parks with multiple functions, excellent recreation facilities, complete management services and parks close to the city center. Functions and services became important influencing factors for park evaluation. (3) There was room for improvement in water ecology in the river landscapes of parks adjacent to various river systems, and people paid more attention to the level of service facilities. (4) According to different categories of parks, people’s demand for service facilities, activity organization, cultural displays and other aspects was different. (5) Among parks in different districts, people preferred the distinctive animal and plant landscapes and recreational activities of parks in districts on the outskirts of the city. According to the conclusions, suggestions were made for optimizing and improving Beijing’s waterfront green space, providing managers with technical support and a basis for decision-making. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media)

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30 pages, 11177 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparative Evaluation of Mountain Landscapes in Beijing Based on Social Media Data

by Tingting Ding, Wenzhuo Sun, Yuan Wang, Rui Yu and Xiaoyu Ge

Land 2022, 11(10), 1841; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11101841 - 19 Oct 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1638

Abstract

An important part of Beijing’s ecological pattern, mountain landscapes are also the most important natural tourist destinations in Beijing. The unique mountain environment in Taihang and Yan Mountains attracts Beijing and foreign tourists alike. Tourists publish travel photos and comments on social media, which provides a new opportunity for a systematic evaluation of these mountain parks based on social media data. To fully understand the developmental status of mountain landscapes in Beijing, this paper comparatively evaluates 45 mountain landscapes in Beijing based on social media data. Using big data capture, semantic network analysis, importance-performance analysis (IPA), etc., it explores the composition of tourist groups in mountain parks, the preferences of the tourist groups, and the relationships between park tourists and different influencing factors, and evaluates the recreational experiences of tourist groups. The development of recreational activities was found to be more important to local tourists than scenic sites for foreign tourists. According to gender differences, women were more interested in recreational experiences than men, while men were more interested in the park’s landscapes. According to the IPA, tourists were satisfied with the overall recreation offered by mountain landscapes. The perceptual experience was dominated by visual perception, followed by smell; touch, hearing, and taste were of minor importance. Using social media data to analyze mountain landscape resources in Beijing can provide useful insights into the advantages of these landscapes under a variety of site conditions, strengthen local mountain resource development and tourism publicity, integrate tourism management and planning resources in a targeted and attractive manner, and enhance ecological leisure services. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media)

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13 pages, 2233 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Can We Foresee Landscape Interest? Maximum Entropy Applied to Social Media Photographs: A Case Study in Madrid

by Nicolas Marine, Cecilia Arnaiz-Schmitz, Luis Santos-Cid and María F. Schmitz

Land 2022, 11(5), 715; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11050715 - 10 May 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1777

Abstract

Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) are undervalued and poorly understood compared to other types of ecosystem services. The sociocultural preferences of the different actors who enjoy a landscape are intangible aspects of a complex evaluation. Landscape photographs available on social media have opened up the possibility of quantifying landscape values and ecosystem services that were previously difficult to measure. Thus, a new research methodology has been developed based on the spatial distribution of geotagged photographs that, based on probabilistic models, allows us to estimate the potential of the landscape to provide CES. This study tests the effectiveness of predictive models from MaxEnt, a software based on a machine learning technique called the maximum entropy approach, as tools for land management and for detecting CES hot spots. From a sample of photographs obtained from the Panoramio network, taken between 2007 and 2008 in the Lozoya Valley in Madrid (Central Spain), we have developed a predictive model of the future and compared it with the photographs available on the social network between 2009 and 2015. The results highlight a low correspondence between the prediction of the supply of CES and its real demand, which indicates that MaxEnt is not a sufficiently useful predictive tool in complex and changing landscapes such as the one studied here. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media)

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21 pages, 5154 KiB

Open AccessArticle

User Perception of Public Parks: A Pilot Study Integrating Spatial Social Media Data with Park Management in the City of Chicago

by Yiwei Huang, Zhixin Li and Yuhan Huang

Land 2022, 11(2), 211; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11020211 - 29 Jan 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5648

Abstract

User-generated content (UGC) is a relatively young field of research; however, it has been proven useful in disciplines such as hospitality and tourism, to elicit public opinions of place usage. In landscape architecture and urban planning, UGC has been used to understand people’s emotions and movement in a space, while other areas and additional functions are yet to be discovered. This paper explores the capability of UGC in revealing city-scale park management problems and the applicability of social media as a future tool in bridging visitor feedback to city parks and recreation department staff. This research analyzed the spatial characteristics and patterns of Google Maps review quantity, rating score, and review comments. The results of this pilot study indicate the spatial and structural features of the Chicago parks and demonstrate distribution problems, financial investment priority concerns, park usage characteristics, and user preferences of the park attributes. Findings affirm that user-generated online reviews can be used as an alternative and self-reporting data source to effectively assess the natural performance and users’ experience of city parks and can potentially serve as an evaluative tool for public park management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media)

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17 pages, 2505 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Central Arizona Conservation Alliance Programs: Use of Social Media and App-Supported Community Science for Landscape-Scale Habitat Restoration, Governance Support, and Community Resilience-Building

by Aireona B. Raschke, Jeny Davis and Annia Quiroz

Land 2022, 11(1), 137; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11010137 - 15 Jan 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2715

Abstract

Land managers are currently faced with a nexus of challenges, both ecological and social, when trying to govern natural open spaces. While social media has led to many challenges for effective land management and governance, the technology has the potential to support key activities related to habitat restoration, awareness-raising for policy changes, and increased community resilience as the impacts of increased use and climate change become more apparent. Through the use of a case study examining the work of the Central Arizona Conservation Alliance’s social media ambassadorship and its app-supported community science projects, we examine the potential and realized positive impact that technology such as social media and smartphone apps can create for land managers and surrounding communities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media)

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17 pages, 3397 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mountain Landscape Preferences of Millennials Based on Social Media Data: A Case Study on Western Sichuan

by Keying Ding, Mian Yang and Shixian Luo

Land 2021, 10(11), 1246; https://doi.org/10.3390/land10111246 - 13 Nov 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2734

Abstract

Mountain area is one of the most important modern tourist attractions, and unique mountain landscapes are highly appealing to millennials. Millennials post their travel photos and comments on social media, and these media messages can positively influence other millennials’ travel motivations. To fully understand the attraction of mountain tourist destinations to millennials, this study analyzed their landscape preferences using images posted on social media. As a case study, we analyzed the landscape resources in Western Sichuan Plateau Mountain Areas (WSPMA). We found that differences in genders, modes of transportation, and travel patterns of the millennials influenced their preferences for mountain landscapes. Our results broaden the current knowledge on mountain tourism from the perspective of millennials through social media data. Moreover, studying the landscape resources in WSPMA can facilitate the analysis of regional advantages. This will ultimately enhance tourism publicity and integrate various resources for tourism management and planning in more targeted and attractive ways. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Governance in the Age of Social Media)

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