Integrating Aspatial and Spatial Data to Improve Visitor Management: Pairing Visitor Questionnaires with Multiple Spatial Methodologies in Grand Teton National Park, WY, USA

Author(s):  
Ashley D'Antonio ◽  
B. Derrick Taff ◽  
Jenna Baker ◽  
William Rice ◽  
Jennifer Newton ◽  
...  

Recent advances in geospatial technology resulted in GPS and GIS-based approaches becoming more common in visitor use management studies. Many of these studies focus on describing the spatial and temporal patterns and trends of use. While these descriptive data are useful, recent reviews of the recreation literature using GPS and GIS techniques suggest that spatial technologies should be linked to aspatial approaches – such as visitor surveys – to better understand the experiences and behaviors of visitors. However, these calls in the literature have not provided directions for how such an integration could be achieved in a way that is useful to both scientists and managers. This paper presents a multi-faceted methodological approach employed in a study of visitor use and experience at String and Leigh Lakes in Grand Teton National Park, WY. We used an intentional, integrated approach, where aspatial data was linked to three different types of spatial data to better understand the social and ecological environments of SLL and their influence on visitor experiences. Visitors completed questionnaires before and after their experience at SLL that were combined with GPS-based tracking data. We related both the survey results and GPS tracking data to a GIS analysis of mapped, biophysical user-created resource impacts. We also paired spatial-aspatial data in an experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of visitor messaging. The deliberate combination of aspatial and spatial data allowed us to investigate site-specific management concerns and theory-based questions. We found that paired spatial-aspatial data provided a more nuanced understanding of the relationships between the social, experiential, and biophysical factors measured in our study. Overall, this paper provides a method for thoughtfully integrating GPS and GIS-based techniques with questionnaires in a way that contributes to both the science and management of visitor use in parks and protected areas.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0251383
Author(s):  
Lyudmila Maksanova ◽  
Taisiya Bardakhanova ◽  
Natalia Lubsanova ◽  
Darima Budaeva ◽  
Arnold Tulokhonov

The impact of protected areas on local communities is the subject of intense discussions as part of the implementation of the global ecosystem protection agenda. Conflicts between the interests of environmental protection and the needs of socio-economic development become particularly acute when large areas of land are taken out of economic circulation as a result of organizing protected areas. In this case, there is an urgent need for detailed and reliable information about the social impacts of such land withdrawal on the well-being of the local population. An analysis of the methodological approaches widely presented in the literature, used to assess the social impact of protected areas, testifies to the insufficiency of completed and practically applicable methodological guidelines for the areas with significant restrictions for people who form part of the protected landscape. In this study, we understand the cost estimate of the social impact of national parks on the local population as a quantitative calculation of the losses due to restrictions on their ownership rights to land and property assets. The methodological approach consists in considering the category of losses as a sum total of the actual damage and lost profits. The assessment algorithm includes three stages: systematization of social impacts on citizens, development of indicators and data collection, and calculation of actual damage to the population and lost profits. The assessment is performed using the example of the Tunkinsky National Park located in the Tunkinsky municipal district of the Republic of Buryatia, a region of the Russian Federation, where there are 14 rural settlements with a population of more than 20,000 people. The results of the calculations show that the losses of the rural population due to legal restrictions on the registration of land dealings amount to 170.4 million USD. Taking into account the potential amount of administrative fines and the value of property subject to demolition, the losses amount to 239.2 million USD. It is more than an order of magnitude greater than the amount of own revenues of the Tunkinsky municipal district in 2011–2019. The results obtained demonstrate the real picture of the impact of restrictions on the rights of local people to land within the boundaries of national parks and are useful for developing measures to account for their interests and include protected areas in the socio-economic development of regions. The methodological approach developed by the authors can be used in other national parks, where it is necessary to optimize the policy of improving land use for local residents.


Author(s):  
S. Spaulding ◽  
S. O'Ney ◽  
K. Hermann

A survey was conducted in August 2008 to determine the distribution and extent of stalked diatoms in major rivers and streams in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). We determined that a nuisance bloom of the diatom Didymosphenia geminata was present in Lake Creek from the outlet of Phelps Lake to approximately 1 km downstream of the Rockefeller Preserve. This bloom was considered "excessive" because the coverage of the stream substrate was 70% or above for greater than 1 km. This diatom species is able to survive out of water in damp conditions, and it may be transported on the gear of recreationalists. In GTNP, this diatom was found in a high visitor use area, with concomitant potential for the species to be spread by anglers to other sites within the national park. Although there are several factors that appear to influence its distribution, recent nuisance blooms of this species suggest popular angling sites are often sites of nuisance blooms. Decontamination of aquatic gear by recreationalists may be appropriate to limit the spread of nuisance blooms within the national park system and adjacent public and private water bodies


Author(s):  
Christopher Monz ◽  
Ashley D'Antonio

Changes to resource conditions due to recreation use were examined in select locations in Grand Teton National Park. The study focused on assessing areas off designated trails and sites, where visitor use can often result in rapid and undesirable resource impacts. Preliminary results suggest that while resource change is significant in some locations, impacts tend to be limited spatially to areas surrounding popular destination sites. In addition, several alpine and subalpine locations of known recreation use showed little or no resource change outside of designated trails and sites. This work provides a baseline condition assessment that allows for an examination of change over time and an evaluation of the effectiveness of visitor management actions.


Author(s):  
Lyman McDonald ◽  
Kevin Kinsley

The overall objective of this research project is to develop operationally feasible and statistically efficient visitor use estimation procedures for Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). More specific objectives are: 1. Identify problems with the current estimation procedures; 2. Design procedures for generating improved visitor use estimates that satisfy the reporting needs of GTNP; 3. Develop an automatic data processing system that will produce the visitor use summaries required by GTNP; and 4. Implement the procedures on a test scale during the summer of 1982 and estimate parameters for the test period.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Tsaaior

Scholarship negotiating African folktales and the entire folkloric tradition in Africa has always been constituted as harbouring fundamental lacks. One of these lacks is the supposed incapacity of oral cultures to produce high literature. However, it is true that folktales and other oral forms in Africa can participate actively in the social, political and cultural process. In this paper, we engage folktales told by the Tiv of central Nigeria and situate them within the dynamic of history, culture, modernity and national construction in Nigeria. The paper adopts a historicist and culturalist perspective in its interpretation of the folktales which were collected in particular Tiv communities. This methodological approach helps to crystallize the historical and cultural lineaments embedded in the people’s experiences, values and worldviews. It also constitutes a contextual background for the understanding of the folktales as they offer informed commentaries on social currents and political contingencies in Nigeria. It argues that though folktales belong to a pre-scientific and pre-industrial dispensation, they are part of the people’s intangible cultural heritage and are capable of distilling powerful statements which negotiate Nigerian modernity and postcolonial condition. The paper underscores the dynamism and functionality of folktales even in an increasingly globalised ethos.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Hava Rexhep

The aging is not only a personal but also a social challenge from several aspects, several dimensions; a challenge aiming to build system approaches and solutions with a long term importance. Aims: the main aim of this research is to investigate the conditions and challenges in the modern living of the old people, primarily in terms of the social care. However, this research is concentrated on a big group of the population and their challenges are the most intensive in the modern living. The investigation of the conditions and challenges in the aging are basis and encouragement in realizing the progressive approaches in order to improve the modern living of the old people. The practical aim of the research is a deep investigation and finding important data, analyzing the basic indicators of the conditions, needs and challenges in order to facilitate the old population to get ready for the new life. Methods and techniques: Taking into consideration the complexity of the research problem, the basic methodological approach is performed dominantly by descriptive-analytical method. The basic instrument for getting data in the research is the questionnaire with leading interview for the old people. Results: The research showed that the old people over 70-79 years old in a bigger percentage manifested difficulties primarily related to the functional dependency, respectively 39,33 % of the participants in this category showed concern about some specific functional dependency from the offered categories. The percentage of the stomach diseases with 38,33 % is important, as well as the kidney diseases with 32,83% related to the total population and the category of the old people over 80. Conclusion: The old people very often accept the life as it is, often finding things fulfilled with tolerance and satisfaction. However the health problems of the old people are characterized with a dominant representation. The chronic diseases and the diseases characteristic for the aging are challenge in organizing adequate protection which addresses to taking appropriate regulations, programs and activities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Laura Hall ◽  
Urpi Pine ◽  
Tanya Shute

Abstract This paper will reflect on key findings from a Summer 2017 initiative entitled The Role of Culture and Land-Based Healing in Addressing and Ending Violence against Indigenous Women and Two-Spirited People. The Indigenist and decolonizing methodological approach of this work ensured that all research was grounded in experiential and reciprocal ways of learning. Two major findings guide the next phase of this research, complicating the premise that traditional economic activities are healing for Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people. First, the complexities of the mainstream labour force were raised numerous times. Traditional economies are pressured in ongoing ways through exploitative labour practices. Secondly, participants emphasized the importance of attending to the responsibility of nurturing, enriching, and sustaining the wellbeing of soil, water, and original seeds in the process of creating renewal gardens as a healing endeavour. In other words, we have an active role to play in healing the environment and not merely using the environment to heal ourselves. Gardening as research and embodied knowledge was stressed by extreme weather changes including hail in June, 2018, which meant that participants spent as much time talking about the healing of the earth and her systems as the healing of Indigenous women in a context of ongoing colonialism.


2020 ◽  
pp. 36-48
Author(s):  
I. M. Loskutova ◽  
N. G. Romanova

This article is devoted to the application of an integrated approach in the study of the quality of life of the population of the North Ossetia. Aspects of the specifity of objective and subjective approaches are substantiated. The increasing importance of the concept of “quality of life” in the XXI century is indicated. A review of sociological studies of the level and quality of life in Russia, as well as a range of monographic works on the analyzed issues. The results of empirical sociological studies in 2014 and 2018 (a study of the quality and standard of living of the population of North Ossetia and a study of the social wellbeing of the population of North Ossetia using the methodology developed by Lapin N. I. and Belyaeva L. A.) are presented.


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