Using geotaged images to assess tourist and recreational load in urban specially protected areas

Urban protected areas are subject to high and uneven tourist-recreational loads. To optimize this load, it is necessary to have data on the actual distribution of visitors in natural areas. In international research practice, the analysis of geo-referenced photos is actively used to assess the recreational load on natural areas. This method has advantages over traditional methods. As indirect indicators of tourist and recreational load, the article uses geo-referenced photos from the largest Russian-language social network “VKontakte” taken by users in protected green areas of Moscow. The article describes the methodology for obtaining and preparing raw data for further analysis. After the initial processing, we analyzed more than 110 thous. geotagged photographs taken in 2022 in 22 of the largest natural areas of the city. At the next step, we assessed the distribution of the load across the protected green areas of Moscow as a whole. For this purpose, we calculated the following indicators: the number of unique users who visited natural areas per year and the number of photographs taken at the natural areas. To assess the uneven distribution of recreational load within natural areas, the H3 geospatial indexing system was used. For each grid hexagon, we calculated the same indicators. In the article, we put forward assumptions about the reasons for the uneven distribution of photographs across protected green areas of Moscow.