The use of crowdsourced geographic information for spatial evaluation of cultural ecosystem services in the agricultural landscape: the case of Chianti Classico (Italy)

Abstract

The use of geo-tagged photographs seems to be a promising alternative to assess Cultural Ecosystem Services CESs in respect to the traditional investigation when focusing on the study of the aesthetic appreciation of a protected area or natural landscape. The aim of this study is integrating the cumulative viewshed calculated from geotagged photo metadata publicly shared on Flickr with raster data on infrastructure, historical sites, and the natural environment, using landscape ecology metrics and RandomForest modelling. Crowdsourced data provided empirical assessments of the covariates associated with visitor distribution, highlighting how changes in infrastructure, crops and environmental factors can affect visitor’s use. These data can help researchers, managers, and public planners to develop projects, and guidelines in the rural landscape for incresing the supply for CESs.

Keywords

• big data
• cultural ecosystem services
• geographical information systems
• landscape management
• random forest