Making Cultural Ecosystem Services Truly Cultural: Mapping Outdoor Experiences in Ukraine with Telegram

Abstract Mapping and assessing cultural ecosystem services (CES) poses a great challenge of quantifying intangible benefits and values. This challenge becomes even more pronounced in context of war. This work-in-progress study introduces a novel, spatially explicit methodology that utilises the Telegram messenger, widely used in Ukraine, to democratise participatory mapping. Our approach aims to explore how Ukrainians value their time spent outdoors and how these perceptions have changed since the fulltime Russian invasion. By framing CES as a cultural experience without rigid categorisation, this study uses a location-based service to capture the diversity of outdoor experiences.