Abstract:

Using social network data to apperceive and evaluate cityscape characteristics is a new method for the quantitative study of urban features. Taking the sign-in data of Sina microblog as data sources of cityscape characteristics perception, this study used text mining and semantic analysis to explore the perception and evaluation of cityscape characteristics in the main urban area of Chongqing Municipality. The study resulted in three maps about the main urban area of Chongqing Municipality, including the sign-in map, the emotion map, and the object map. The sign-in map objectively reflects the distribution of level of activity of the users; the emotion map mines users' emotional expression of positive and negative attitudes on their sign-in space; the object map analyzes the reasons behind the activity distribution and emotional expression to find out urban features that cause positive and negative attitudes. By analyzing the users' typical opinions on urban features designed by planners, the factors are classified into four categories: perceived and positive, perceived and negative, unconscious, and perceived but unspecified. The study provides further references on factor identification and quality evaluation to planners for shaping and controlling urban features.

Key words: perception and evaluation of cityscape characteristics, Sino microblog, semantic analysis, Chongqing Municipality, the sign-in map, the emotion map, the object map