Viewshed-based viewscape analysis supports a range of scientific domains, including urban planning and ecosystem service research, focusing on enhancing well-being benefits. However, most viewshed tools and applications are proprietary and may not be accessible to all. Here, we introduce the open-source R package viewscape created for reproducible calculations of visual landscape metrics within the R environment. We demonstrate the use of this package by analyzing viewscape metrics within the viewsheds of georeferenced social media photographs.
In this paper we present PPGISr, an open source R package for Public Participatory GIS (PPGIS). The online Shiny application and customisable R function enables capturing and using spatial information for participatory planning processes and scientific inquiry. With functionality to add a user-defined editable map, basemaps and mapping categories, the application is highly flexible for guiding decision-making in diverse contexts. Moreover, online functionality reduces time and cost barriers to participation through synchronous and asynchronous engagement. While there are numerous user-friendly decision support tools based on GIS, PPGISr adds novel functionality for the collection and analysis of users’ location priority areas.
Viewshed-based viewscape analysis supports a range of scientific domains, including urban planning and ecosystem service research, focusing on enhancing well-being benefits. However, most viewshed tools and applications are proprietary and may not be accessible to all. Here, we introduce the open-source R package viewscape created for reproducible calculations of visual landscape metrics within the R environment. We demonstrate the use of this package by analyzing viewscape metrics within the viewsheds of georeferenced social media photographs.
In this paper we present PPGISr, an open source R package for Public Participatory GIS (PPGIS). The online Shiny application and customisable R function enables capturing and using spatial information for participatory planning processes and scientific inquiry. With functionality to add a user-defined editable map, basemaps and mapping categories, the application is highly flexible for guiding decision-making in diverse contexts. Moreover, online functionality reduces time and cost barriers to participation through synchronous and asynchronous engagement. While there are numerous user-friendly decision support tools based on GIS, PPGISr adds novel functionality for the collection and analysis of users’ location priority areas.
The ubiquitous use of the internet and social media has provided social and spatial scientists with a wealth of data from which inferences about landscape preferences can be gained. These data are increasingly being used as an alternative to data collected from surveys of recreationists. While the rapidly growing body of research using social media is impressive, little work has been done to compare the image content of social media to preferences elucidated via more traditional methods. We compare the landscape features derived through a computer vision algorithm used to analyze social media photographs with preferences derived through a traditional on-site intercept survey. We found that landscape features identified through the computer vision algorithm were, by and large, significantly different compared to landscape features that park users said improved their recreational experiences. Additionally, we did not find substantial differences in landscape preferences between visitors who share photographs of their park visit on social media and those who do not. We suggest a diversity of data sources and analytical methods should be used in a complementary and comparative way. Our analysis here suggests both surveys and social media images can provide important insights about landscape preferences, but neither in isolation is perfect.
We used nine years of geotagged social media posts uploaded to Flickr and Panoramio to investigate the ability of social media to measure and map spatial patterns in visitation to national parks, national forests, and state parks in Utah, USA. Our analysis shows support for the use of geotagged social media to supplement data collected through traditional means (e.g., on-site counts of visitors) as part of visitor use monitoring protocols. However, we did observe notable differences in the amount of variance in reported visitation explained by geotagged social media. Social media posts made within national parks and national forests captured substantially more of the variation in reported visitation relative to posts made within state parks. We attribute this to a variety of factors including the unique types of sites managed within the state park system, lower levels of visitation relative to national parks and forests within the state, and the method by which the state estimates visitation. We use exploratory spatial analyses to investigate spatial patterns of visitation across public lands. The analysis, performed at three different spatial scales (statewide, region, and county) illustrate the diversity of ways in which geotagged social media can inform outdoor recreation and tourism planning efforts and supplement traditional methods of measuring visitation. Our investigation demonstrates how social media can serve as a useful tool to inform proactive planning and management efforts.
Full list
Yang, X., Fox, N., Van Berkel, D. B., and Lindquist, M. (2024). Viewscape: An r package for the spatial analysis of landscape perception and configurations in viewsheds of landscapes. SoftwareX, 26:101662 2023 39.
Guan, J., Wang, R., Van Berkel, D. B., and Liang, Z. (2023). How spatial patterns affect urban green space equity at different equity levels: A bayesian quantile regression approach. Landscape and Urban Planning, 233:104709 IF: 9.1; CS: 14.4 38.
Fox, N., Van Berkel, D. B., Vergel, R. S., and Lindquist, M. (2023b). vgamereviews: An r package for harnessing video game reviews for scientific research. SoftwareX, 23:101423 IF: 3.4; CS: 5.1 37.
Smart, L. S., Seekamp, E., Van Berkel, D. B., Vukomanovic, J., and Smith, J. W. (2023). Socio-spatial factors influence climate change adaptation decisions of rural coastal landowners. Landscape Ecology, pages 1–19 IF: 5.2 36.
Depietri, Y., Langemeyer, J., Van Berkel, D. B., and Ghermandi, A. (2023). Advancing sustainability research through geospatial technology and social media. In The Routledge Handbook of Geospatial Technologies and Society, pages 494–504. Taylor and Francis AS
Schirpke, U., Ghermandi, A., Sinclair, M., Van Berkel, D. B., Fox, N., Vargas, L., and Willemen, L. (2023). Emerging technologies for assessing ecosystem services: A synthesis of opportunities and challenges. Ecosystem Services, 63:101558 IF: 7.6; CS: 12.4 35.
Fox, N., Lidquist, M., Van Berkel, D. B., and Vergel, R. S. (2023a). A collaborative augmented reality decision support system for crowdsourcing urban designs. Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture, 8:195–202 IF: 0.7 34.
Van Berkel, D. B., Estabrook, T., Fox, N., Bejarano, R. A., Maillard, L., Gill, D., Goto, E. A., and Lemos, M. C. (2023a). Ppgisr: An r package for public participatory gis. SoftwareX, page 101389 IF: 3.4; CS: 5.1 33.
Langemeyer, J., Ghermandi, A., Keeler, B., and Van Berkel, D. B. (2023). The future of crowd-sourced cultural ecosystem services assessments. Ecosystem Services, 60:101518 IF: 7.6; CS: 12.4 32.
Ghermandi, A., Langemeyer, J., Van Berkel, D. B., Calcagni, F., Depietri, Y., Vigl, L. E., Fox, N., Havinga, I., Jäger, H., Kaiser, N., et al. (2023). Social media data for environmental sustainability: A critical review of opportunities, threats, and ethical use. One Earth, 6(3):236–250 IF: 16.2 31.
Ghermandi, A., Van Berkel, D. B., and Langemeyer, J. (2022). Twitter’s totter must prompt research rethink. Nature, 612(7939):211–211
Liu, Y., Rao, P., Zhou, W., Singh, B., Srivastava, A. K., Poonia, S. P., Van Berkel, D. B., and Jain, M. (2022). Using sentinel-1, sentinel-2, and planet satellite data to map field-level tillage practices in smallholder systems. Plos one, 17(11):e0277425 IF: 3.7 29.
Van Berkel, D. B., Kalafatis, S., Gibbons, B., Naud, M., and Lemos, M. C. (2022). Planning for climate migration in great lake legacy cities. Earth’s Future, 10(10) IF: 8.2 28.
Morrison, T. H., Adger, W. N., Agrawal, A., Brown, K., Hornsey, M. J., Hughes, T. P., Jain, M., Lemos, M. C., McHugh, L. H., O’Neill, S., et al. (2022). Radical interventions for climate-impacted systems. Nature Climate Change, pages 1–7 IF: 16.2 27.
Fox, N., Serrano-Vergel, R., Van Berkel, D. B., and Lindquist, M. (2022c). Towards gamified decision support systems: In-game 3d representation of real-word landscapes from gis datasets. Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture, pages 356–364 IF: 0.7 26.
Fox, N., Campbell-Arvai, V., Lindquist, M., Van Berkel, D. B., and Serrano-Vergel, R. (2022a). Gamifying decision support systems to promote inclusive and engaged urban resilience planning. Urban Planning, 7(2) IF: 1.8 25.
Mei, W., Wang, H., Fouhey, D., Zhou, W., Hinks, I., Gray, J. M., Van Berkel, D. B., and Jain, M. (2022). Using deep learning and very-high-resolution imagery to map smallholder field boundaries. Remote Sensing, 14(13):3046 IF: 5.0; CS: 7.9 24. Fox, N., Chamberlain, B., Lindquist, M., and Van Berkel, D. (2022b). Understanding landscape aesthetics using a novel viewshed assessment of social media locations within the troodos unesco global geopark, cyprus. Frontiers in Environmental Science, page 1111 IF: 4.6; CS: 3.1 23.
Maguire-Jack, K., Jespersen, B., Korbin, J. E., Van Berkel, D. B., and Spilsbury, J. C. (2022). Neighborhood effects on child maltreatment in rural areas. In Neighborhoods, Communities and Child Maltreatment, pages 117–129. Springer
K Maguire-Jack, B Jespersen, JE Korbin, D Van Berkel, JC Spilsbury. Neighborhood effects on child maltreatment in rural areas Neighborhoods, Communities and Child Maltreatment: A Global Perspective, 117-129
EJ Wilkins, D Van Berkel, H Zhang, MA Dorning, SM Beck, JW Smith. Promises and pitfalls of using computer vision to make inferences about landscape preferences: Evidence from an urban-proximate park system. Landscape and Urban Planning 219, 104315
Hongchao Zhang, Derek van Berkel, Peter D Howe, Zachary D Miller, and Jordan W Smith. Using social media to measure and map visitation to public lands in Utah. Applied Geography, 128:102389,2021
Van Berkel, Derek, Ashwin Shashidharan, Rua S Mordecai, Raju Vatsavai, Anna Petrasova, Vaclav Petras, Helena Mitasova, John B Vogler, and Ross K Meentemeyer. Projecting urbanization and landscape change at large scale using the futures model. Land, 8(10):144, 20193.
Payam Tabrizian, Perver K Baran,Van Berkel, Derek, Helena Mitasova, and Ross Meentemeyer. Modeling restorative potential of urban environments by coupling viewscape analysis of lidar data with experiments in immersive virtual environments. Landscape and Urban Planning, 195:103704, 20204.
Jennifer Koch, Monica A Dorning,Van Berkel, Derek B, Scott M Beck, Georgina M Sanchez, Ashwin Shashidharan, Lindsey S Smart, Qiang Zhang, Jordan W Smith, and Ross K Meentemeyer. Modeling landowner interactions and development patterns at the urban fringe. Landscape and Urban Planning, 182:101–113, 20195.
Caleb Gallemore, Darla Munroe, and Derek Van Berkel. Rural-to-urban migration and the geography of absentee non-industrial private forest ownership: A case from Southeast Ohio. AppliedGeography, 96:141–152, 20186.
Johannes Hermes,Derek Van Berkel, Benjamin Burkhard, Tobias Plieninger, Nora Fagerholm,Christina von Haaren, and Christian Albert. Assessment and valuation of recreational ecosystemservices of landscapes, 20187.
Derek B Van Berkel, Payam Tabrizian, Monica A Dorning, Lindsey Smart, Doug Newcomb,Megan Mehaffey, Anne Neale, and Ross K Meentemeyer. Quantifying the visual-sensory landscapequalities that contribute to cultural ecosystem services using social media and lidar.Ecosystem Ser-vices, 20188.
Derek B Van Berkel, Bronwyn Rayfield, Sebastián Martinuzzi, Martin J Lechowicz, Eric White,Kathleen P Bell, Chris R Colocousis, Kent F Kovacs, Anita T Morzillo, Darla K Munroe, et al.Recognizing the “sparsely settled forest”: Multi-decade socioecological change dynamics and com-munity exemplars.Landscape and Urban Planning, 170:177–186, 20189.
Monica A Dorning, Derek B Van Berkel, and Darius J Semmens. Integrating spatially explicit representations of landscape perceptions into land change research . Current Landscape Ecology Reports, pages 1–16, 201710.
Darla K Munroe, Caleb Gallemore, andDerek Van Berkel. Hot tub cabin rentals and forest tourism in hocking county, ohio. Revue économique, 68(3):491–510, 201711.
Brian R Pickard,Derek Van Berkel, Anna Petrasova, and Ross K Meentemeyer. Forecasts of urbanization scenarios reveal trade-offs between landscape change and ecosystem services.LandscapeEcology, 32(3):617–634, 201712.
Boris T van Zanten,Derek B Van Berkel, Ross K Meentemeyer, Jordan W Smith, Koen F Tieskens,and Peter H Verburg. Continental-scale quantification of landscape values using social media data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, page 201614158, 201613.
Anita T Morzillo, Chris R Colocousis, Darla K Munroe, Kathleen P Bell, Sebastián Martinuzzi, Derek B Van Berkel, Martin J Lechowicz, Bronwyn Rayfield, and Brian McGill. “communities inthe middle": Interactions between drivers of change and place-based characteristics in rural forest-based communities.Journal of Rural Studies, 42:79–90, 201514.
Derek B Van Berkeland Peter H Verburg. Spatial quantification and valuation of cultural ecosystemservices in an agricultural landscape. Ecological indicators, 37:163–174, 2014
Derek B Van Berkel, Darla K Munroe, and Caleb Gallemore. Spatial analysis of land suitability, hot-tub cabins and forest tourism in Appalachian Ohio. Applied Geography, 54:139–148, 201416.
Darla K Munroe, Derek B Van Berkel, Peter H Verburg, and Jeffrey L Olson. Alternative trajectories of land abandonment: causes, consequences and research challenges.Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 5(5):471–476, 201317.
Derek B Van Berkeland Peter H Verburg. Combining exploratory scenarios and participatory backcasting: using an agent-based model in participatory policy design for a multi-functional land-scape. Landscape ecology, 27(5):641–658, 201218.
Derek B Van Berkel, Sónia Carvalho-Ribeiro, Peter H Verburg, and Andrew Lovett. Identifying as-sets and constraints for rural development with qualitative scenarios: a case study of castro Laboreiro, portugal.Landscape and Urban Planning, 102(2):127–141, 201119.
Derek B Van Berkel and Peter H Verburg. Sensitising rural policy: Assessing spatial variation in rural development options for europe.Land Use Policy, 28(3):447–459, 201120.
Andrew Lovett, Sonia Carvalho Ribeiro, Derek Van Berkel, Peter Verburg, and Ana Firmino. Rep-resenting and communicating rural futures through 3d landscape visualizations–experiences fromthe rufus project.Peer reviewed proceedings of digital landscape architecture, pages 261–268, 201021.
Peter H Verburg,Derek B Van Berkel, Anne M van Doorn, Michiel van Eupen, and Harm van denHeiligenberg. Trajectories of land use change in Europe: a model-based exploration of rural futures. Landscape ecology, 25(2):217–232, 2010
Ashwin Shashidharan, Derek B Van Berkel, Ranga Raju Vatsavai, and Ross K Meentemeyer. Futures-amr: Towards an adaptive mesh refinement framework for geosimulations. InGIScience 2018 Inter-national Conference on Geographic Information Science, pages –. Springer, 201823.
Stacy Supak, Gene Brothers, Ladan Ghahramani, and Derek Van Berkel. Geospatial analytics for park & protected land visitor reservation data. InAnalytics in Smart Tourism Design, pages 81–109.Springer, 201724.
Qiang Zhang, Ranga Raju Vatsavai, Ashwin Shashidharan, andDerek Van Berkel. Agent basedurban growth modeling framework on apache spark. InProceedings of the 5th ACM SIGSPATIALInternational Workshop on Analytics for Big Geospatial Data, pages 50–59. ACM, 201625.
Ashwin Shashidharan,Derek B Van Berkel,, Ranga Raju Vatsavai, and Ross K Meentemeyer. pfutures: A parallel framework for cellular automaton based urban growth models. In InternationalConference on Geographic Information Science, pages 163–177. Springer, 201626.
A Petrasova, V Petras,Derek Van Berkel, BA Harmon, H Mitasova, and RK Meentemeyer. Opensource approach to urban growth simulation.Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens Spat Inf Sci, 41:B7,2016