Social Landscape Metrics: Measures for Understanding Place Values from Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS)

Landscape metrics are used in landscape ecology to quantify landscape characteristics related to structure, function and change by quantifying the structure and distributional pattern of landscape elements such as plants, animals and other physical landscape features. To date, there has been little published research on landscape metrics that include social perceptions of landscape. In this paper, we introduce the concept of social landscape metrics that quantify human perceptions of place resulting from the use of public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS). We present and explain a set of social landscape metrics that measure the composition and configuration of human perceptions of landscapes from multiple study areas using empirical data from PPGIS studies. We distinguish between two classes of social landscape metrics, boundary and inductive, present methods to develop them, and describe some of their applications to land use planning and management. We conclude with a discussion of future research needs for advancing knowledge about social landscape metrics.