TY - JOUR

T1 - Patterns of Urban Green Space Use Applying Social Media Data

T2 - A Systematic Literature Review

AU - Zabelskyte, Gabriele

AU - Kabisch, Nadja

AU - Stasiskiene, Zaneta

N1 - Funding information: Gabriele’s work was supported by funding of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU, AZ 30021/928-45, period: 2021/04/15 – 2022/04/14) with the project “Identifying Indicators of UrbanEcosystem Services to Mitigate Health Risks”.

PY - 2022/2/5

Y1 - 2022/2/5

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Big data

KW - Park use

KW - Social media data

KW - Systematic review

KW - Urban green spaces

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124408847&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/land11020238

DO - 10.3390/land11020238

M3 - Review article

VL - 11

JO - Land

JF - Land

IS - 2

M1 - 238

ER -