TY - JOUR
T1 - Analyze the usage of urban greenways through social media images and computer vision
AU - Song, Yang
AU - Ning, Huan
AU - Ye, Xinyue
AU - Chandana, Divya
AU - Wang, Shaohua
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants SMA-2122054 and OAC-2112356, Texas A&M University Harold L. Adams Interdisciplinary Professorship Research Fund, and College of Architecture Faculty Startup Fund. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, or preparation of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - Urban greenway is an emerging form of urban landscape offering multifaceted benefits to public health, economy, and ecology. However, the usage and user experiences of greenways are often challenging to measure because it is costly to survey such large areas. Based on the online postings from Instagram in 2017, this paper used Computer Vision (CV) technology to analyze and compare how the general public uses two typical greenway parks, The High Line in New York City and the Atlanta Beltline in Atlanta. Face and object detection analysis were conducted to infer user composition, activities, and key experiences. We presented the temporal patterns of Instagram postings as well as the group gatherings, smiling, and representative objects detected from photos. Our results have shown high user engagement levels for both parks while teens are significantly underrepresented. The High Line had more group activities and was more active during weekdays than the Atlanta Beltline. Stronger sense of escape and physical activities can be found in Atlanta Beltline. In summary, social media images like Instagram can provide strong empirical evidence for urban greenway usage when combined with artificial intelligence technologies, which can support the future practice of landscape architecture and urban design.
AB - Urban greenway is an emerging form of urban landscape offering multifaceted benefits to public health, economy, and ecology. However, the usage and user experiences of greenways are often challenging to measure because it is costly to survey such large areas. Based on the online postings from Instagram in 2017, this paper used Computer Vision (CV) technology to analyze and compare how the general public uses two typical greenway parks, The High Line in New York City and the Atlanta Beltline in Atlanta. Face and object detection analysis were conducted to infer user composition, activities, and key experiences. We presented the temporal patterns of Instagram postings as well as the group gatherings, smiling, and representative objects detected from photos. Our results have shown high user engagement levels for both parks while teens are significantly underrepresented. The High Line had more group activities and was more active during weekdays than the Atlanta Beltline. Stronger sense of escape and physical activities can be found in Atlanta Beltline. In summary, social media images like Instagram can provide strong empirical evidence for urban greenway usage when combined with artificial intelligence technologies, which can support the future practice of landscape architecture and urban design.
KW - Urban greenway
KW - computer vision
KW - park usage
KW - place quality
KW - social media
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122854358&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85122854358&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/23998083211064624
DO - 10.1177/23998083211064624
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122854358
SN - 2399-8083
VL - 49
SP - 1682
EP - 1696
JO - Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
JF - Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
IS - 6
ER -