12. April 2022

The cherry blossom squares The cherry blossom squares

Research groups at the University of Bonn illustrate on a map where you can find cherry blossoms in Bonn

Just on time for the start of the Bonn Cherry Blossom Festival, geodesists from the University of Bonn have taken advantage of social media to visualize where the blossoms are hiding in Bonn.

The squares marked in red indicate where cherry blossoms were photographed. The darker the square, the more photos of cherry blossoms were taken (light red: 1 to 26 images; red: 27 to 52 images; dark red: 53 to 77 images). The total data set includes 380 images.
The squares marked in red indicate where cherry blossoms were photographed. The darker the square, the more photos of cherry blossoms were taken (light red: 1 to 26 images; red: 27 to 52 images; dark red: 53 to 77 images). The total data set includes 380 images. © Petter Rottmann, Uni Bonn
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Probably the most popular photo motif during spring time in Bonn? The cherry blossom! As every year, the cherry blossom festival takes place in Bonn's old town. Tourists, citizens and even professional photographers from all over the world travel to find Bonn in a pink sea of cherry blossoms and capture the spectacle photographically. These photos are often tagged with location data and shared with the public via social media.

Researchers at the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation have now taken advantage of this information. Research assistant Peter Rottmann analyzed the photos and used the data to visualize on a map where the most photos of cherry blossoms were taken in Bonn. Around 380 photos from the social media platform Flickr from the years 2006 to 2021 were used for the resulting map. The map should make it easier for future visitors to find attractive locations for their perfect snapshot.

Background: In the priority program VGIScience of the German Research Foundation, researchers at the University of Bonn are investigating the potential of such information shared via social media (more generally: Volunteered Geographic Information, VGI). Three research groups of the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation and the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Bonn are involved in the priority program.

More information on the Cherry Blossoms

M.Sc. Peter Rottmann
Institute for Geodesy and Geoinformation
Working Group Geoinformation
Email: rottmann@igg.uni-bonn.de

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