An analysis of Amud Anan - A unique volunteered geographic information platform for nature-based recreation in Israel

Nature-based recreation activities are popular worldwide, yet traditional monitoring methods and their derived databases often limit spatial studies of these activities, partially due to the large area and remoteness of many open spaces. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) from crowdsourced data could be used to study nature-based recreational activities. Most studies using VGI for recreation analysis are based on international English-speaking apps, and thus may miss information which is only available in local languages. Here we used a database from the Israeli unique VGI app and Hebrew website ‘Amud Anan’ (https://amudanan.co.il/) to study spatial patterns of recreation activity, using the points of interest's (POIs) density as the response variable, and several explanatory variables such as accessibility and attraction of the POIs. We also conducted in-depth interviews to study the motivations of users to share POIs. We found strong correlations between POIs' density and accessibility variables such as distance from roads and hiking trails, as well as with attraction variables such as distance from camping and picnic sites. We conclude that the Amud Anan database and VGIs in general can serve as effective tools for mapping nature-based recreational activity Israel and world-wide.