Leveraging Geotagged Social Media to Monitor Spatial Behavior During Population Movements Triggered by Hurricanes

In a world of increased mobility and interconnectedness, the study of spatial behavior becomes more relevant than ever. However, multiple researchers have highlighted that the understanding of these dynamic processes has reached a bottleneck derived from the rigidity of traditional spatial behavior inquiry methods and the unavailability of trustworthy and relevant information. These difficulties are even more prominent during emergencies and disasters as these events often create scenarios where spatial behavior does not follow regular and logical patterns and where conventional mobility datasets are often skewed or not existent. Thus, many scholars working within the spatial behavior sub-discipline are pursuing innovative data collection methods to deepen the understanding of human spatial behavior. Researchers see digital geospatial trace data, also known as passive citizen sensor data, as one of the most promising opportunities to develop and test new hypotheses on spatial behavior. Nevertheless, the application of these new methods has not been fully explored within the hazard/disaster discipline for spatial behavior purposes under stressed situations. This dissertation investigates the suitability of geotagged social media (Twitter) as an innovative approach for the study of spatial behavior of people in stressed contexts and responds to three main research questions: 1) How well do geotagged social media estimate hurricane evacuation compliance? 2) To what extent is geotagged social media amenable for determining hurricane evacuation behavior? 3) How suitable is geotagged social media to evaluate post-disaster displacement and tourist flows? The dissertation therefore not only attempts to develop a new method to estimate the number of movements associated with the different stages of an emergency but also tries to answer long-standing questions about the response of different population sub-groups (residential status, gender, age, race/ethnicity) before, during, and after hurricanes. Results confirm the potential of geotagged social media to tackle some of the deficiencies of traditional approaches, particularly offering more timely, dynamic, and affordable information about the evacuation and post-disaster population movements. In addition, results demonstrate that the Twitter-based approach complements survey-based methods as it permits accessing underrepresented groups in traditional approaches such as the young, short-term residents, and racial/ethnic minorities. Although the representativeness of Twitter samples is still debatable and needs further research, this method to investigate emergency-triggered population movements can ultimately improve our understanding of the response and recovery phases of a disaster

On the Representativeness of OpenStreetMap for the Evaluation of Country Tourism Competitiveness

[EN] Since 2007, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has issued data on the factors and policies that contribute to the development of tourism and competitiveness across countries worldwide. While WEF compiles the yearly report out of data from governmental and private stakeholders, we seek to analyze the representativeness of the open and collaborative platform OpenStreetMap (OSM) to the international tourism scene. For this study, we selected eight parameters indicative of the tourism development of each country, such as the number of beds or cultural sites, and we extracted the OSM objects representative of these indicators. Then, we performed a statistical and regression analysis of the OSM data to compare and model the data emitted by WEF with data from OSM. Our aim is to analyze the tourist representativeness of the OSM data with respect to official reports to better understand when OSM data can be used to complement the official information and, in some cases, when official information is scarce or non-existent, to assess whether the OSM information can be a substitute. Results show that OSM data provide a fairly accurate picture of official tourism statistics for most variables. We also discuss the reasons why OSM data is not so representative for some variables in some specific countries. All in all, this work represents a step towards the exploitation of open and collaborative data for tourism.This work has been supported by COLCIENCIAS through a PhD scholarship.Bustamante, A.; Sebastiá Tarín, L.; Onaindia De La Rivaherrera, E. (2021). On the Representativeness of OpenStreetMap for the Evaluation of Country Tourism Competitiveness. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. 10(5):1-22. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10050301S12210

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Human Mobility based on Land Use Types in the Greater Toronto Area during COVID-19 Pandemic

The 2019 Coronavirus disease COVID-19 is an infectious respiratory disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It undoubtedly poses a huge challenge in terms of public health and social impact worldwide. The Ontario government implemented a series of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) prior to vaccination to prevent large-scale outbreaks in the Great Toronto Area (GTA), which is the most densely populated region in Ontario. Detecting and analyzing human mobility during the pandemic can help decision makers assess the effectiveness of policy implementation, in order to better respond to similar events in the future. Geotagged Twitter data serves as an important source of volunteered geographic information (VGI). Anonymized geotagged tweet in the GTA in 2020 using the Twitter Academic API are used to analyze inner-city human mobility. The results provide a longer-term insight into how human activity is affected by the pandemic as well as government orders. In this thesis, human mobility spatiotemporal patterns in the GTA are found to be close to patterns founded in the previous studies. People are affected more by the severeness of the first outbreak. More people stay at home rather than in commercial areas, schools, and workplaces. Human mobility in open spaces is affected by seasons besides policy effects. Human mobility in utility and transportation areas is related to the properties of the areas they connect. Most of the policies received significant reflections within one week of release, but milder policies resulted in insignificant human mobility changes. Human mobility patterns in most land use types have moderate correlation with the Google Community Mobility Report. Even so, some limitations still exist

Social media and GIScience: Collection, analysis, and visualization of user-generated spatial data

Over the last decade, social media platforms have eclipsed the height of popular culture and communication technology, which, in combination with widespread access to GIS-enabled hardware (i.e. mobile phones), has resulted in the continuous creation of massive amounts of user-generated spatial data. This thesis explores how social media data have been utilized in GIS research and provides a commentary on the impacts of this next iteration of technological change with respect to GIScience. First, the roots of GIS technology are traced to set the stage for the examination of social media as a technological catalyst for change in GIScience. Next, a scoping review is conducted to gather and synthesize a summary of methods used to collect, analyze, and visualize this data. Finally, a case study exploring the spatio-temporality of crowdfunding behaviours in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic is presented to demonstrate the utility of social media data in spatial research

Place, recreation and local development

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Monitoring and Management of Visitors in Recreational and Protected Areas (MMV9), Bordeaux, FRA, 29-/08/2018 - 31/08/2018It is our pleasure to welcome you to the 9th international Conference on Monitoring and Management of Visitors in Recreational and Protected Areas (MMV9) with a program including keynote speeches, organized and poster sessions, a half-day field trip, social events and post conference trips. This is the first time that France has hosted an MMV Conference. Our country is ranked as the world's top tourist destination, thanks largely to its culture, art, and gastronomy, as well as popular cities such as Paris and Bordeaux. On the other hand, France's potential as a destination for outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism is not hugely publicized, despite its many unique features in this respect: varied climate and natural assets (shoreline, mountains, lakes, and forests), large expanses of countryside, and a network of protected natural areas, to name but a few. France's protected areas are often free to access for the general public. However, in contrast with other countries, nature conservation in specific areas is much less widespread. Where it does take place, it is often centered on territories that are perceived to be "attractive", and where many conflicting activities are practiced. This may be one of the reasons why contractual tools and regional park systems are quite popular in France. The MMV Conference offers an excellent opportunity to discuss the situation in France in greater depth. The theme proposed for the conference was "recreation, place and local development". This reflects our assumption that recreational areas are not just physical assets designed to receive visitors for the purpose of leisure - which in itself would already be something of great importance - but that they reflect deeper social phenomena, as demonstrated through the range of organized sessions dedicated to discussing questions such as environmental education and economic development, but also emerging themes such as social integration, community resilience, environmental justice, and health. The traditional topics covered by MMV Conference reflect an evolving society: with innovations in monitoring techniques (both on people and nature), focus on new populations (Y generation, ethnic minority) and a larger concern for individual engagement and participative management. The 9th Edition of MMV is co-hosted by Irstea and BSA. This would not have been possible without significant contributions from a large number of additional partners and sponsors as well as our national scientific and organizing committee. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their help. After two years of planning, we are proud to announce that we have more than 160 presentations from 30 countries, meaning that the conference will host over 200 participants from across the globe. We are honored that the International Steering Committee has given us the opportunity to be part of this great MMV community, which organized its first meeting in 2002. We hope you will enjoy the conference as much as we enjoyed organizing it. If you can't be with us in person, we hope that you will enjoy reading our publications

Nature-Based Solutions for Restoration of Ecosystems and Sustainable Urban Development

This volume examines the applicability of nature-based solutions in ecological restoration practice and in contemporary landscape architecture by bringing together ecology and architecture in the built environment. Green infrastructure is used to address urban challenges such as climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and stormwater management. In addition, thermal comfort nature-based solutions reintroduce critical connections between natural and urban systems. In light of ongoing developments in sustainable urban development, the goal is a paradigm shift towards a landscape that restores and rehabilitates urban ecosystems. The ten contributions to this book examine a wide range of successful cases of designing healthier, greener and more resilient landscapes in different geographical contexts, from the United States of America and Brazil, through various European regions, to Singapore and China. While some chapters attempt to conceptualize the interconnections between cities and nature, others clearly have an empirical focus. Therefore, this volume provides a rich body of work and acts as a starting point for further studies on restoration of ecosystems and integrative policies such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Sounding the alarm: Is the Sri Lankan tourism sector prepared for climate change?

The United Nations has concluded that climate change is unequivocal and without a rapid decarbonization of the global economy there will be risks of severe, pervasive, and irreversible impacts. The World Bank also emphasized that no scenario exists by which the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030 could be met in a world transformed by climate change. Climate change has already affected the sustainability and competitiveness of global tourism yet it remains to be one of the least prepared economic sectors for the risks and opportunities of climate change. Several studies have highlighted persistent and significant regional knowledge gaps within the scholarship on tourism and climate change – particularly in the South and South-East Asia sub-regions where global tourism is expected to grow the fastest by 2030. Consequently, it is unclear the scale and scope of potential climate change impacts on tourism in these countries or how the tourism sector is planning for climate change in policy and practice. Tourism is Sri Lanka’s third largest economic sector and has been earmarked as one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change by the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment. This thesis fills the regional knowledge gap and examines the preparedness of Sri Lanka’s tourism sector at the national scale (Phase I) and the destination level (Phase II). Phase I established the state of knowledge of climate change risks and impacts facing the tourism sector and reviewed the policy coherence between Sri Lanka’s national tourism strategy and climate adaptation plan. Phase II examined tourism stakeholder perceptions’ of climate change and identified barriers to climate adaptation at the embedded case study site (Unawatuna). This study found that Sri Lanka’s tourism sector is not prepared for climate change. The policy review indicated that climate change receives minimal attention in the tourism strategy and therefore does not enable stakeholders to take a proactive and planned approach to adaptation. Interviews suggested that despite being acutely aware of changes in the climate system, climatic conditions were not a priority in the context of other more immediate challenges among tourism stakeholders in Unawatuna. In light of these findings, this thesis recommends the following actions: 1) Conduct research studies to improve understanding of sector relevant climate change risks and impacts; 2) Communicate climate change as a local problem to tourism stakeholders; and, 3) Strengthen institutional capacities to mainstream adaptation. These findings can be used to inform future tourism policies and adaptation plans in Sri Lanka and can offer insight on mainstreaming adaptation in other developing countries facing similar challenges