Novel insights on intensity and typology of direct human-nature interactions in protected areas through passive crowdsourcing

•We characterize direct human-nature interactions with geotagged SNS data.•We investigate visitation in 568 protected areas in Israel and West Bank.•Combining multiple SNS sources improves fit with observed data and predictive power.•Photo content analysis reveals visitors’ interests and differences among SNSs.•Photogenic sites and inland waters are over- and under-represented in SNS data.