Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture, Hatay, Türkiye
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between digital societal visibility and scientific visibility of natural disasters using Reddit and Web of Science data. A total of 4.619 cleaned Reddit posts collected between 2021 and 2025 were classified into six disaster categories: drought, wildfire, earthquake, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. The classification was performed using Logistic Regression, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine models trained on a Kaggle-based labeled social media dataset consisting of 2.559 records. Scientific visibility was assessed through Web of Science publications in the same disaster categories and analyzed using annual publication trends, keyword structures, and trend topic analyses. The results showed that wildfire accounted for 62.7% of digital societal visibility on Reddit, whereas earthquake (40.8%) and floods (34.2%) exhibited the highest levels of scientific visibility. The largest positive Visibility Gap was observed for wildfire (+58.6), while the largest negative gap occurred for earthquake (−40.6). Spearman rank correlation analysis (ρ= −0.257) indicated a weak inverse relationship between societal and scientific visibility rankings. These findings demonstrate that public attention and scientific research priorities do not necessarily develop in parallel. From a landscape architecture perspective, the results highlight the importance of resilient landscape planning, green infrastructure, and climate-adaptive design strategies.
UZUNALİ, A. (2026). How Aligned are Digital Societal and Scientific Visibility? A Machine Learning-Assisted Comparative Analysis of Natural Disasters. MAS Journal of Applied Sciences, 11(3), 551–570. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21351645
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