Coordinating and Standardizing Outdoor Recreation Supply and Demand Databases to Facilitate Management and Promote Conservation, Health, and Accessibility

Author(s):  
Wayde Morse ◽  
Lee Cerveny ◽  
Dale Blahna

Recreation opportunities exist as a system at multiple scales and are offered by a variety of recreation providers sometimes with different goals and objectives. Incremental and disparate planning across providers can lead to mismatched supply and demand and inefficient use of resources. Furthermore, traditional recreation supply and demand studies have not systematically considered compatible benefits from conserving recreation lands including demand for and provision of biodiversity and wildlife conservation, ecosystem services, human health, and environmental justice issues.Historically, the supply of outdoor recreation and conservation lands was assembled by different state and federal agencies, counties and municipalities, Native American tribes, non-governmental organizations, or private organizations for the lands they directly managed with little systematic coordination. A national level Protected Area Databased (PAD-US) developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Gap Analysis Project is changing this. It is the official, publicly available, and comprehensive spatial inventory of every park and protected area in the US. The PAD-US program has developed a standardized data set with consistent protocols and methodologies for data collection for continuous updates.Demand assessments are currently conducted by various federal and state agencies, industry associations, and academics. These studies are independently conducted at various levels form recreation site, across land ownership, by activity, or state and national studies. Initiated in 1960, what became the National Survey of Recreation and the Environment (NSRE) collected recreation demand data for analysis at state and national levels. Many recreation planners used this data until it was discontinued in 2014. While there has been coordination and systemization and standardization of recreation supply data collection, no similar actions have occurred for demand.Following the PAD-US, we identify opportunities to coordinate, standardize, and systematize the collection of demand data across agencies, ownerships, and scales. We propose a parallel publicly available National Recreation Demand Database (NRDD) with consistent protocols and methodologies to be the comprehensive and authoritative inventory of recreation demand. We suggest that a new National Survey on People and the Environment (NSPE) be developed to replace the NSRE to collect improved data on outdoor recreation, other resource uses, and compatible benefit demand information.

Author(s):  
Johnathan Jernigan ◽  
Christopher Moore ◽  
Ron Rizzo ◽  
Kevin Schmaltz

The Western Kentucky University (WKU) Department of Engineering is collaborating with National Park Service – Inventory and Monitoring scientists to support National Park Service (NPS) cave environment and ecosystems research. The NPS, together with the United States Geological Survey, provided the funding that has allowed WKU Engineering students, working with WKU faculty and staff and NPS scientists, to design, build, test and deliver two transportable instrumentation lift systems. Each lift tower has a stationary top platform and a secondary platform capable of continuously raising and lowering instrumentation over extended, unattended periods. NPS-owned instrumentation on the platforms collects air temperature, relative humidity and air velocity data, storing results to NPS-owned devices located on or below the tower. NPS scientists will use the system to gather more accurate data on the quality and movement of air within cave passages and develop predictive models of the environment. The new system will allow measurements as high as 30 feet and make long-term data collection feasible. A variety of design challenges were met by the students working on the project. Portability, flexibility and weight reduction were achieved through a collapsible aluminum base securing the tower, with three-foot PVC sections to build varying tower heights. Stability was accomplished with a tensioning cable system and a gripping mechanism integrated into the base to secure the incomplete tower. Cable spool design and data collection programming achieved positioning accuracy of the moving platform. In addition to satisfying functional needs, the towers were also designed to avoid damage to cave surfaces and meet challenging operating requirements. Tower components are reasonably lightweight and durable, components are shock-resistant, moisture-resistant, easy to dry and clean, and non-corroding. The design modularity facilitates transport by two NPS personnel using duffle bags, and is easy to set up and move. The towers support multiple instruments weighing as much as 10 pounds, can be modified to support instruments in varied configurations, and can be repaired in-house by NPS personnel. The towers were designed and tested to assure user friendly, reliable operation. Tower stability, ease of tower construction, accuracy of platform movement, and required battery life issues were solved by the students.


2020 ◽  
pp. 33-51
Author(s):  
Benjamin Wiggins

From the mid-to-late nineteenth century, in the period after the use of branding and before the use of fingerprinting, penal institutions faced the problem of how to identify repeat offenders. In this interim, Alphonse Bertillon, a clerk in the Paris Prefecture of Police, developed an anthropometric system that measured the bodies of criminals at their intake and catalogued these measurements in order to identify them should they offend again. Calculating Race’s second chapter traces the importation of the Bertillon System of Classification to the United States, where its data collection practices were racialized. It then investigates University of Chicago sociologist Ernest Burgess’s 1920s work on this data set to build a formula for sentencing and parole decisions. The resulting algorithm from Burgess’s work relied heavily on race-based Bertillon data and factored race into its recommendations for length of sentence and supervised release, installing racial statistics as a key variable in matters of criminal justice.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S423-S423
Author(s):  
Tony Rosen ◽  
David Burnes ◽  
Darin Kirchin ◽  
Alyssa Elman ◽  
Risa Breckman ◽  
...  

Abstract Elder abuse cases often require integrated responses from social services, medicine, civil legal, and criminal justice. Multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs), which meet periodically to discuss and coordinate interventions for complex cases, have developed in many communities. Little is known about how these MDTs collect case-level data. Our objective was to describe existing strategies of case-level electronic data collection conducted by MDTs across the United States as a preliminary step in developing a comprehensive database strategy. To identify MDTs currently collecting data electronically, we used a snowball sampling approach discussing with national leaders. We also sent an e-mail to the National Center for Elder Abuse listserv inviting participation. We identified and reviewed 11 databases from MDTs. Strategies for and comprehensiveness of data collection varied widely. Databases used ranged from a simple spreadsheet to a customized Microsoft Access database to large databases designed and managed by a third-party vendor. Total data fields collected ranged from 12-338. Types of data included intake/baseline case/client information, case tracking/follow-up, and case closure/outcomes. Information tracked by many MDTs, such as type of mistreatment, was not captured in a single standard fashion. Documentation about data entry processes varied from absent to detailed. We concluded that MDTs currently use widely varied strategies to track data electronically and are not capturing data in a standardized fashion. Many MDTs collect only minimal data. Based on this, we have developed recommendations for a minimum data set and optimal data structure. If widely adopted, this would potentially improve ability to conduct large-scale comparative research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam M. Clark ◽  
Daniel B. Fagre ◽  
Erich H. Peitzsch ◽  
Blase A. Reardon ◽  
Joel T. Harper

Abstract. Glacier mass balance measurements help to provide an understanding of the behavior of glaciers and their response to local and regional climate. In 2005 the United States Geological Survey established a surface mass balance monitoring program on Sperry Glacier, Montana, USA. This project is the first quantitative study of mass changes of a glacier in the US northern Rocky Mountains and continues to the present. The following paper describes the methods used during the first 11 years of measurements and reports the associated results. From 2005 to 2015, Sperry Glacier had a cumulative mean mass balance loss of 4.37 m w.e. (water equivalent). The mean winter, summer, and annual glacier-wide mass balances were 2.92, −3.41, and −0.40 m w.e. yr−1 respectively. We derive these cumulative and mean results from an expansive data set of snow depth, snow density, and ablation measurements taken at selected points on the glacier. These data allow for the determination of mass balance point values and a time series of seasonal and annual glacier-wide mass balances for all 11 measurement years. We also provide measurements of glacier extent and accumulation areas for select years. All data have been submitted to the World Glacier Monitoring Service and are available at doi:10.5904/wgms-fog-2016-08. This foundational work provides valuable insight about Sperry Glacier and supplies additional data to the worldwide record of glaciers measured using the glaciological method. Future research will focus on the processes that control accumulation and ablation patterns across the glacier. Also we plan to examine the uncertainties related to our methods and eventually quantify a more robust estimate of error associated with our results.


Author(s):  
Renan Valério Eduvirgem ◽  
Claudemir Rodrigues Soares ◽  
Elissandro Voigt Beier

This paper addresses the exploitation of mineral resources and suggests that an environmental management that meets a set of measures and mutual cooperation between public and private managers, civil society, and mining companies that exploit natural, renewable, and non-renewable resources is needed. Cooperation between managers and joint safety measures can prevent present and future accidents like the one that occurred in Mariana City in Minas Gerais State (MG). The questioning presented puts into discussion the disaster that occurred in Mariana City due to the rupture of the ore tailings dam (Fundão dam) in November 2015. With an estimated population of 60,000 inhabitants, Mariana City has a local economy directly linked to mining activities. Due to the impact caused by the rupture of the Fundão dam, both city and vegetation were destroyed, among other factors observed along the path followed by the tailings. However, what is discussed in this article with greater emphasis is the loss of vegetation in the watershed. The methodology compared the degree of vegetation coverage in the basin area through the analysis of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index – NDVI for 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 in different months. Some images refer to August and other samples are from September, complementing the process through the use of Landsat 8 satellite images - OLI sensor, acquired from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) repository. 299 points were distributed in the quadrant to perform the analyses (n = 299). The level of significance was set at 5% with a 95% confidence, to ascertain and verify whether the data distribution is in an acceptable condition (dense or semi-dense vegetation cover). Regarding vegetation analysis, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests were used. Both tests indicated a non-normal distribution for the NDVI data set, which indicates the absence of a vegetation index that was covered by the tailings, resulting in an area with large spaces without the coverage previously registered in 2013. We conclude that the vegetation suffered a drastic alteration provoked by the rupture of the Fundão dam which also led to homeless residents, negative impacts on the livelihood of the small farmers and fishermen, silting up of rivers and streams, death of several animal and plant species, and also affected the ecosystem and the local and regional biodiversity. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon M. Shane

Documenting police use of force has been an issue in the United States since at least 1931. As of July 2016, there is still no standardized national data collection effort, despite a call from several presidential and civil rights commissions to do so. Without accurate and timely national data, a moral panic of sorts unfolds that replaces rational thought and debate necessary to enact public policy. Moreover, without such data, it is virtually impossible to estimate the incidence and prevalence of police use of force, which leaves U.S. law enforcement agencies at a tremendous disadvantage for improving practices. This essay briefly examines the history of calls to improve police practices through collecting national use of force data and then offers a practical solution based on rational-technical theory of organizations with a brief analysis of a new promising, but limited, data set. The essay concludes with a proposed research agenda should national data become available through pending legislation H.R. 306, National Statistics on Deadly Force Transparency Act of 2015.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Rice ◽  
B. Derrick Taff ◽  
Ben Lawhon ◽  
Peter Newman

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the United States, many residents began participating in outdoor recreation for the first time, or returned to outdoor recreation after a prolonged hiatus. During the first year of the pandemic, many parks in the U.S. experienced record visitation as overall park and protected area visitation increased across much of the country. Part of this increase in visitation was likely the result of existing outdoor recreationists who increased their participation during the first year of the pandemic because of restrictions to other types of leisure activities. However, it is possible that much of the increase in outdoor recreation and park use was the result of a recreation substitution, as new outdoor recreationists either tried outdoor recreation for the first time or returned to outdoor recreation because they could not do their more preferred means of recreational activities (e.g., go to bars, movies, gyms, etc.). Research concerning these new participants is sparse at present (Grima et al., 2020; Outdoor Industry Association & Naxion Research Consulting, 2021). Therefore, the research detailed in this report focuses on the results of a national panel study aimed at gaining a more robust understanding of both 1) how these new outdoor recreationists differ from other participants and non-participants and 2) the behaviors of these new outdoor recreationists. In doing so, we provide insights concerning information used by new participants to aid their transition to outdoor recreation, how helpful this information was, what activities they participated in, where they participated in these activities, and if they plan to continue participating once the pandemic is over.


Commonwealth ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Somayeh Youssefi ◽  
Patrick L. Gurian

Pennsylvania is one of a number of U.S. states that provide incentives for the generation of electricity by solar energy through Solar Renewal Energy Credits (SRECs). This article develops a return on investment model for solar energy generation in the PJM (mid-­Atlantic) region of the United States. Model results indicate that SREC values of roughly $150 are needed for residential scale systems to break even over a 25-­year project period at 3% interest. Market prices for SRECs in Pennsylvania have been well below this range from late 2011 through the first half of 2016, indicating that previous capital investments in solar generation have been stranded as a result of steep declines in the value of SRECs. A simple conceptual supply and demand model is developed to explain the sharp decline in market prices for SRECs. Also discussed is a possible policy remedy that would add unsold SRECs in a given year to the SREC quota for the subsequent year.


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