Abstract
Scientific interest in the potential of urban green spaces, particularly urban parks, to improve health and well-being is increasing. Traditional research methods such as observations and surveys have recently been complemented by the use of social media data to understand park visitation patterns. We aimed to provide a systematic overview of how social media data have been applied to identify patterns of urban park use, as well as the advantages and limitations of using social media data in the context of urban park studies. We used the PRISMA method to conduct a systematic literature analysis. Our main findings show that the 22 eligible papers reviewed mainly used social media data to analyse urban park visitors’ needs and demands, and to identify essential park attributes, popular activities, and the spatial, social, and ecological coherence between visitors and parks. The review allowed us to identify the advantages and limitations of using social media data in such research. These advantages include a large database, real-time data, and cost and time savings in data generation of social media data. The identified limitations of using social media data include potentially biased information, a lack of socio-demographic data, and privacy settings on social media platforms. Given the identified advantages and limitations of using social media data in researching urban park visitation patterns, we conclude that the use of social media data as supplementary data constitutes a significant advantage. However, we should critically evaluate the possible risk of bias when using social media data.
Highlights
As cities grow and become denser, urban green spaces are becoming a critical component for improving human health and well-being, as well as for social interaction, economic benefits, and environmental quality improvement [1,2,3,4]
Given the increased interest in using social media data for researching the benefits of urban green spaces, the main aim of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review based on three main research questions: (1) What are the main aims and findings of existing research using social media data to assess green space use and, in particular, park use?
This study aims to assess the visitation of urban parks using multiple social media data
Summary
As cities grow and become denser, urban green spaces are becoming a critical component for improving human health and well-being, as well as for social interaction, economic benefits, and environmental quality improvement [1,2,3,4]. Urban green spaces provide ecosystem services that contribute to mitigating global climate change-related challenges e.g., by regulating extreme temperatures or floods and reducing air and noise pollution [5,6,7,8,9,10] Urban green spaces, such as parks, provide health and well-being benefits such as recreation, social interaction, and a connection to nature [11,12,13,14,15,16]. Planning for sustainable and resilient urban development requires knowledge on which urban green spaces are used under the contextual conditions of global changes such as periods of heat and drought, or under increasing population densities [5], and which characteristics of particular green spaces such as parks attract visitors. This knowledge may help urban planning to further qualify urban green spaces
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