How Covid-19 changed the way we visit rivers? Applications of big data for sentiment analysis

Rivers function as natural settings, bringing people together with various activities in the surrounding area. While the literature has overlooked the emotional values and wellbeing connection associated with rivers, knowing how the rivers are perceived by visitors and how the use of rivers has changed during the pandemic can assist decision-making for land use policies and planning. On the other hand, social media, assisting in articulating visitation patterns and moods proximate to the river, provides unprecedented insight to better macro- manage these areas. In this study, we employed Machine Learning to conduct a content analysis for rivers of Poland to expose User-Generated Content (UGC) through the visitors’ lens. We aim at understanding an essential cultural hegemony, the patterns of visits, and the moods of visitors. We further compared the results with the Covid-19 daily infections. The findings suggest an increased pressure on rivers during the pandemic, specifically at the time of the lowest sentiments. Our results may help in articulating patterns and moods proximate to the river that provide unprecedented practical insight and illuminate the path for further research proposals. • User-generated contents help to manage visits the nature. • The social media big data can picture visitation patterns (i.e., time and volume of visits). • The Covid-19 pandemic is excreting more pressure on river settings. • The mood and sentiment of the visitors are lower during the Covid infections peaks. • The higher the Covid-19 new cases, the lower the sentiment of the rivers’ visitors.