Abstract
People living in increasingly urbanised areas are seeking restorative environments for recreation. Consequently, the need arises to identify and map such tranquil spaces. However, collecting in situ data across large areas about where people experience tranquillity is usually cost-prohibitive. In this study, we use social media data from the photosharing platform Flickr to explore the experience of tranquillity in Scotland. We developed a novel methodology that combines the metadata of photographs (location and textual tags) and the content of photographs to explore where tranquillity is experienced within the landscape, and which factors influence tranquillity. Mapping locations of photographs with tags related to tranquillity reveals areas of experienced tranquillity across Scotland that are relatively easily accessible by road, for example along the West Coast, as well as near inland water bodies. Users also uploaded tranquil photographs in urban areas, but less than expected compared to the density of general Flickr uploads in these areas. Based on the content of photographs, the presence of water bodies, boats and special atmospheric conditions (e.g. sunset) were identified as significant factors influencing experienced tranquillity. Furthermore, we found no relation between potential quiet areas and the locations where people uploaded photographs with tranquil tags. This study highlights the potential of a hybrid approach to social media data analysis for exploring people's place-based experiences. By focusing on where people experience tranquillity in the landscape, our results are complementary to existing approaches modelling the potential for tranquillity and have important implications for how we conceptualise and model tranquillity as experienced by people.
Highlights
With increasing levels of urbanisation across Europe, people are seeking tranquil areas for recreation away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life (Beard & Ragheb, 1983; Frick, Degenhardt, & Buchecker, 2007)
Given that we identify such structures in more than a third of all photographs that people describe with tranquil tags indicates that the complete absence of all visible man-made structures does not seem to be a prerequisite for people experiencing tranquillity
Contrary to the idea that remoteness and quietness are prerequisites for experiencing tranquillity, which has been implemented in mapping approaches where tranquillity can be said to exist (CPRE and the Countryside Commission, 1995; MacFarlane et al, 2004), we found hotspots of photographs with tranquillity tags in accessible areas visited by many people
Summary
With increasing levels of urbanisation across Europe, people are seeking tranquil areas for recreation away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life (Beard & Ragheb, 1983; Frick, Degenhardt, & Buchecker, 2007). Auditory and visual footage taken in rural environments of England and Scotland were evaluated by participants in a controlled laboratory setting, showing that the addition of man-made sounds decreased tranquillity ratings (Watts & Pheasant, 2015a). Results of these studies indicated that both visual and auditory factors impact people’s sense of tranquillity. Similar findings were reported from a study that administered an online survey to residents and visitors of the Serre natural park in Italy, where respondents indicated that visual, olfactory and auditory factors influenced their experience of tranquillity (Modica, Zoccali, & Di Fazio, 2013)
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