El análisis de los Servicios Ecosistémicos Culturales a partir de Información Geográfica Voluntaria. El caso del periurbano de Tarragona

Identifier:  TDX:4208

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX4208

Authors:  Avila Callau, Aitor

Abstract:
The main objective of the thesis is to analyze the Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) of the Tarragona peri-urban area using Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) as the primary data source. In addition to providing helpful information for the management and planning of the CES, the purpose is to generate a set of action proposals focused on the social and environmental sustainability of the CES in the area studied. The main methodological steps are divided into four phases. The first consists of generating a database from a passive VGI source (an online platform for sharing recreational or outdoor sports activities) and debugging the errors. This database has two components: geolocated photographs and GNSS traces. The second phase refers to geolocated photographs' content and spatial analysis, and the third refers to the spatial analysis of GNSS traces or routes. Finally, the fourth phase consists of identifying a set of approved trails in the study area and evaluating them as health assets based on fieldwork. Among the results, the following stand out: (1) the design of a methodological process to debug errors associated with this type of source, which has made it possible to obtain a filtered and optimised database; (2) the spatial modelling of the preferences of outdoor recreationists by the CES of the peri-urban area of Tarragona from geolocated photographs; (3) spatial analysis of outdoor recreation in the analysed area from GNSS traces; (4) the determination of the strengths and weaknesses as health assets of the most used official trails, in addition to determining the degree of affinity of these trails with the pre-established user typologies.