Comparing cultural ecosystem service delivery in dykelands and marshes using Instagram: A case of the Cornwallis (Jijuktu'kwejk) River, Nova Scotia, Canada

Climate change and sea level rise threaten coastal areas around the world. In the Bay of Fundy area of the Canadian Maritime Provinces, there are 364 km of dykes protecting 32,350 ha of drained agricultural land. The Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture is in charge of dyke maintenance on its coast, and making decisions about which dykes to reinforce for new climate conditions, which to realign (shorten), and which to simply abandon. Decision-makers need to better understand how people value and use dykeland compared with the marsh ecosystems they replaced, and to which areas will return if dykes are abandoned or realigned. Cultural ecosystem services (CESs) refer to nonmaterial contributions from nature to human beings' subjective and psychological aspects that affect their quality of life. We analyzed the CESs delivered by the dykelands and marshes of the Cornwallis (Jijuktu'kwejk) River by using 4 months of Instagram data. The results show two different portraits: 1) dykes and dykelands were more associated with aesthetics, recreational use, social relations, and female users; and 2) marshes (particularly a restored freshwater wetland in the study area) were more used by males and locals for artistic and educational value. Foreshore salt marshes were largely unmentioned in the dataset which may indicate that people did not consciously use or benefit from this ecosystem. Social media data are valuable in providing large-scale quantitative understanding of coastal land cover/land use alternatives to supplement other in-depth analysis, while having limitations regarding data noise and user bias, as well as concerns around ethical issues and ongoing data accessibility.