Exploring Spatial Transformation with Social Media

The focus of this paper is on the potential role of GIS and social media in understanding transformations of space and place. Such transformations have consequences for people's perceptions and preferences of spaces. The complexity and dynamics of the interaction between people and urban space requires other than static representations of the image of a city. The image of a city is continuously changing, affected by various kinds of transformations. Three kinds of transformations of urban space are proposed: flows, waves, and pulses. Flows are ongoing processes, irreversible sequences of events such as the globalization process. Waves are cycles such as day and night or the changing seasons. Pulses don't show regularity, these are unique and exceptional events. Examples are mega events or natural disasters.
Data on urban areas are derived from social media, including photos with tags and gps-location, and these are analyzed with GIS software to understand the consequences of these transformations for image building, preferences, and uses of space. GIS, including data from social media, enables mapping the changing image of a place at multiple levels of scale, from the individual to the global. The image of a city is mapped for various users groups as well. A challenge is to interpret the meaning of the aggregated data at various levels of scale. Moreover, the distinction between 'noise' and real changes in people's perceptions and preferences needs further research.