Geovisualization of socio-spatial data on outdoor activities and values in the Southern Appalachians

This article describes how GIS is increasingly being used to explore, analyze, and visualize qualitative social data across space. The authors applied a number of geovisualization and analysis approaches to spaces identified on maps by survey participants, in the context of a Human Ecology Mapping (HEM) project in western North Carolina. HEM is an applied research endeavor that has been used in a number of other locations to tease out relationships between people and landscapes by identifying both the activities people do in certain locations and the values they hold about those locations. The authors’ western NC project gathered location information through participant sketch mapping, and activities, values, and social/demographic data in a survey. They combined these in a GIS and present a selection of visualization and analyses that demonstrate the effectiveness of GIS techniques in understanding places, how they are used, and which people use them for what purposes.