Topics
Behavior in natural and protected areas
Dr. Derek Van Berkel
Social media data are transforming sustainability science by enabling us to capture where people are taking photographs in nature and protected areas. But have we fully tapped into these valuable photographic datasets? Could the locations of these photographs also tell us something about behavior and activities in these natural areas? Answering this question could aid in designing effective management strategies and in conservation efforts. This project will use a dataset of over 50 million social media posts across the United States. Team will be able to define their geographic focus and theme of study (e.g., protected areas in the West, wildlife conflicts).
Environmental Attitudes from Social Media
Dr. Nathan Fox
Social media websites have fast become an important source of data for understanding our interactions with nature, such as the cultural significance of nature, identifying charismatic and endangered species and natural hazard monitoring and disaster response. What else might we learn from comments on social media? Attitude towards the SDGs? Preferences for more sustainable food options? Discussion on environmental disasters? Favorite recreational activities? This project is will focus on what we say on social media, but the theme is flexible to the interests of the team.
Using Video Game Engines to Visualize Environmental Data
Dr. Ramiro Serrano Vergel
The visual representation of data has been a key factor for analysis and decision making for environmental planning. The development of new technological tools such as video game engines (Unity 3D), enables us to visualize and analyze data in immersive and interactive ways. This project will allow the team to choose an environmental topic of their choice and use relevant geographic information to develop an application on Unity 3D with interactive navigation.
Crowdsourcing Soundscapes
Dr. Mark Lindquist
Social media has proven to be an important source for environmental and cultural research. Platforms such as Twitter and Flickr provide important image and location-based data, however there is currently lacking an equivalent for soundscapes, which are an important aspect of sustainability research. This project aims to identify sources and develop techniques to obtain and process environmental sounds comparable with the ease that other social media data can be accessed.
Multisensory Environmental Data
Xiaohao Yang
This project leverages 200 360-degree videos (including sounds and street view) recorded in Ann Arbor to develop new methods of analysis or new results based on multisensory interaction. The team will use videos to assess visual information and develop their own novel analysis (e.g. assessing vegetation cover in videos).
Pilgrimage sites: tourist and religious behavior
Dave Grace
Pilgrimage sites are important spiritual location for both tourists and religious pilgrims. This project will use Flickr to assess trends in pilgrimage visitors. The objective is to create new methods to classify religion/religious practice in Flickr data, and compare this with tourists. The challenge will be to classify and compare the Flickr social networks of tourist and pilgrim groups, based on the interests that emerge from project participants.