Analysis of cultural ecosystem services using text mining of residents’ opinions

Abstract

Abstract Cultural ecosystem services are the benefits experienced by people visiting ecological resources. These services are assessed based on visitors’ behaviors and perception. Existing quantitative methods based on questionnaire surveys and geotagged photographs are useful in comparative analysis; however, they only address the items presented by researchers. This makes it difficult to explain unique user activities related to cultural ecosystem services in a specific area and the reasons behind their use. Qualitative analytics, which has been identified as an alternative, is ideal for confirming the features of local cultural ecosystem services but is limited in terms of quantification. In light of such limitations, this study opted for text mining as a tool for quantifying the opinions of local residents and the features of local cultural ecosystem services that were expressed during workshops. Specifically, the most frequently used keywords were selected from local residents’ texts concerning ecological knowledge and their opinions of cultural ecosystem services, and factor analysis was conducted for each ecological resource to shed light on the features of the cultural ecosystem services provided by each ecological resource. The analysis of Gwangju (Gyeonggi-do) Province, South Korea, showed that the main user activities related to cultural ecosystem services included mountain climbing, farm programs, and history and culture programs, among others. It also revealed local user activities in cultural ecosystem services in each ecological resource—ecosystem services provided by a public stadium in association with adjacent wetlands. It was observed that the indicator “recreation” was subdivided into “mountain climbing,” “exercise,” “strolling,” etc., in relation to “health value.” Meanwhile, the indicator “cultural heritage” was distinguished by the special user activity “ceramics” and was associated with “educational value.” It could also be qualitatively seen that “aesthetic value” was regarded as a benefit that accompanied the experience of “mountain climbing” and “exercise,” which may be enjoyed when visiting places of “nature,” “ecosystems,” or “plants” with “family,” in relation to “social relations value.” “Spiritual/religious value” was related to “cultural heritage” in Catholic sacred sites. However, limitations were found in the analysis of cultural ecosystem services based on the opinions of local residents, as it is difficult to compare them with the services of other regions. Thus, further advanced research on cultural ecosystem services is required to uncover regional user activities and allow for a comparative analysis between regions.