Mining Social Media Data to Capture Urban Park Visitors’ Perception of Cultural Ecosystem Services and Landscape Factors

Abstract

Urban parks not only enhance urban ecology but also play a crucial role in providing cultural ecosystem services (CESs) for the well-being of urban residents. Both artificial and natural landscape factors within parks contribute significantly to the supply of cultural ecosystem services. To explore public perceptions of landscape factors and CESs, this study focused on 25 urban parks in Hangzhou. Social media data uploaded by park visitors from 2018 to 2023 were collected to establish a corresponding CES indicator framework. Combining computer vision with text mining, we assessed the preferences and correlations between visitor-perceived CESs and park landscape factors. The results indicated that the majority of park visitors perceive CESs (80.00%) with overall satisfaction higher than importance. Among them, aesthetic experiences and recreation showed both high satisfaction and importance. In shared social media photos, arbor (19.01%), herbaceous flowers (8.99%), and grove (8.22%) were frequently presented as landscape factors. The study revealed close correlations between user gender, landscape factors, and perceived CES categories, with females contributing more to the perception of both. There were internal correlations within CES categories, with spiritual services, aesthetic experiences, and recreation showing the most significant associations. Different landscape factors impacted CES categories to varying degrees, and biological landscapes formed by plant and animal factors were considered to provide more CESs. These findings are significant for enhancing the quality of ecological services and biodiversity in parks.