The WeSense pilot trialled in the Greater Amsterdam region, demonstrates that Social Sensing using mobile electronic devices is effective in the collection of real-time, location-specific data from citizens and visitors on perceptions and responses to a wide variety of environments in metropolitan areas. This form of data generation also allows for the inclusion of a range of critical parameters affecting perception, such as: time of the day, day of the week, season, weather, activity, company, and state of mind. Additional incorporation of sensorial aspects such as visual, auditory, and olfactory sensations in the WeSense pilot shows promise, but needs to be better incorporated. The WeSense platform shows that use of social sensing using mobile technology supplements traditional environmental research methods by facilitating situated responses. Users contribute data on how they experience an outdoors space while they are situated in that space (situated data creation) which reproduces their immediate impressions with the surroundings. The most immediate ‘proofing’ of this advantage is the generation of photos by different users.

Technologies collecting location-based data in the real world have advantages
over traditional methods for landscape perception research. The
possibility to relate geo-referenced responses of inhabitants to the physical
and social data in expert GIS databases can lead to new insights into the
difference between laymen and expert opinions and may result in adjustments
of policy forming. To date, the use of Social Sensing in Landscape
perception and valuing is limited. This research presents the set of requirements
for a mobile application for landscape and urban planning, discusses
some of the main challenges, and concludes that a number of evaluated
existing mobile applications just partly meet those requirements.