Library of Trails Benefits

This study evaluates mountain bike use in five recreational areas using GPSies data at a regional scale in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) in Portugal. Results indicate that 98% of users were from Portugal and 60.57% of the rides were going to at least one of the protected and recreational areas (P&RAs) studied. 80.77% of all rides in LMA were round trips, with an average length of 44.87 km.

This study analyzes the reliability of Global Navigation Satellite System-based (GNSS) Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) using three platforms: GPSies, Outdooractive, and Komoot. These data sources are compared with automatic visitor counters to evaluate the spatial distribution of hikers in Germany’s Bavarian Forest National Park. In a comparison of all three platforms, GPSies and Outdooractive had the strongest correlation of spatial distribution and length of hiking activities.

This study uses Flickr data and remote sensing technologies to identify forest biometric and topographic data to map and estimate recreational potential of British Columbia’s provincial park system. Potential recreation and consumer surplus are mapped in Cypress Provincial Park using variables that influence visitors’ preferences for recreational activities. A machine learning approach called convolutional neural network (CNN) was used to filter Flickr images. The CNN was found to perform best in the classification of images depicting hiking, wildlife, skiing, and biking, but not as well for images depicting camping. The analysis also revealed that consumer surplus in Cypress Provincial Park was primarily concentrated in two hotspots.

This study analyzes how visitation in the Columbia River Gorge of Oregon and Washington changed as a result of the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire. A visitation model is constructed by incorporating data from social media to measure visitation patterns and used to look for a substitution effect on nearby recreation sites after the fire.

This study analyzed changes in visitation on 33 of Ireland’s recreational walking trails between January 2019 and December 2020 using data from infrared sensors and Google Community Mobility Report (GCMR) data. A strong correlation was found between GCMR data and infrared sensors. There was a 6% overall increase in recreational trail usage in Ireland in 2020 compared to 2019.

This study is listed as the first in a series of Knoxville Urban Wilderness (KUW) health and economic impact reports. This paper details the number of KUW users during 2021. Findings include that the users of the KUW trail system are predominately white, adult males, and that mountain biking, running, and walking are the most popular activities.

The authors apply a GIS spatial analysis using social media data to quantify public perspectives of recreational ecosystem services (RESs) or green spaces in Beijing, China. This megacity-scale study was conducted using data from the Little Red Book (LRB) which has been referred to as “China’s Instagram.” Though the authors acknowledge there are some limitations in their methodology, they found that existing urban green spaces do not provide enough outdoor recreation facilities for the current demand, which leads to more clusters of outdoor recreational activity in the suburbs.

In Rörbäcksnäs, Sweden, researchers found that social information such as collective action and descriptive norms in signage posted on the main mountain biking trailhead encouraged higher donation amounts and participation rates from mountain bikers. Descriptive norms included listing the donation amount from mountain bikers in recent weeks on the signage. Through the survey, researchers found that the likelihood of participants donating increased when participants believed other participants were donating.