Estimating visitor use of protected areas by modeling accessibility: A case study in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Theobold DM, Norman JB, Newman P. 2010. Estimating visitor use of protected areas by modeling accessibility: A case study in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Journal of Conservation Planning. 6:1-20
Developed an approach to estimate visitor use by modeling the accessibility of a park by representing park entrances, road and trail infrastructure, trailhead locations, and off-trail travel. Increasingly, land managers need to better understand the spatial distribution of visitor use in parks and protected areas to address possible impacts on natural and cultural resources. Common surrogates of visitor use in protected areas based on spatial data include distance from roads and density of roads and trails. We developed an approach to estimate visitor use by modeling the accessibility of a park by representing park entrances, road and trail infrastructure, trailhead locations, and off-trail travel. We illustrate our approach on a case study of Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA. We compared accessibility measured as one-way travel time to density of roads and trails, and found that accessibility better differentiates use levels, particularly with respect to front-country and backcountry zones. We also illustrate how accessibility can be used to examine potential pathways of invasive species.We recommend that accessibility modeling can provide a useful way to generate maps of visitor use for understanding potential effects on parks and protected areas.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Theobold, David; Norman, John; Newman, Peter
- Units
- ROMO
- Keywords
- accessibility, Protected Areas, road density, Travel Time, Visitor Use