Significance: In many landscapes across the globe, we are witnessing an ongoing functional shift away from landscapes managed for extractive activities (e.g., agriculture, mining, forestry) and toward landscapes managed for recreation and leisure activities. Understanding the spatial configuration of this functional shift at regional and continental scales will be crucial for the development of effective landscape and rural development policies in coming decades. We present a rigorous comparison between three social media platforms’ suitability for mapping and quantifying landscape values. We also introduce a predictive model capable of quantifying landscape values at a continental scale. The utility of the model is illustrated through the identification of specific landscape features that best explain high densities of ascribed value (i.e., landscape value locations).

Immersive virtual environment (IVE) technology offers a wide range of potential benefits to research focused on understanding how individuals perceive and respond to built and natural environments. In an effort to broaden awareness and use of IVE technology in perception, preference and behavior research, this review paper describes how IVE technology can be used to complement more traditional methods commonly applied in public health research. The paper also describes a relatively simple workflow for creating and displaying 360° virtual environments of built and natural settings and presents two freely-available and customizable applications that scientists from a variety of disciplines, including public health, can use to advance their research into human preferences, perceptions and behaviors related to built and natural settings.