Elsevier

Tourism Management

Volume 51, December 2015, Pages 112-130
Tourism Management

The use of public participation GIS (PPGIS) for park visitor management: A case study of mountain biking

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.003Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We evaluated the utility of public participation GIS (PPGIS) in park tourism planning.

  • Our method was effective for engaging mountain bikers in complex spatial planning.

  • Insights were gained on rider distributions, underlying reasons and management actions.

  • We used GPS tracking to validate and surveys to complement PPGIS mapping data.

  • We discuss the benefits of mixed PPGIS delivery modes (field vs. online data).

Abstract

Spatially-explicit participatory planning is a relatively new approach for managing visitors to protected areas. In this study we used public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) mapping and global positioning system (GPS) tracking to monitor mountain bikers frequenting national parks for tourism and recreation in Northern Sydney, Australia. PPGIS was implemented using both an internet application and with hardcopy maps in the field. Our research addressed two fundamental questions for park planning: (1) What is the spatial distribution of visitor activities and location-specific reasons for riding; and (2) What location-specific actions are needed to improve riding experiences? The spatial distributions of riding activities generated in PPGIS showed strong correlation with the GPS tracking results, with riding locations being related to the reasons for track selection. Riders proposed a broad range of management actions to improve riding experiences. PPGIS mapping provides a cost-effective approach to facilitate spatial decision making, allowing park agencies to prioritise future visitor management actions. We discuss the strengths and limitations of these research methods.

Introduction

Providing quality tourism and recreation experiences is essential for national parks and other public lands to cultivate social support for their protection. Developing national park experiences that promote short and long-term benefits for visitors (Driver, 2008, Wolf et al., 2015) may assist in conserving the natural and cultural values of parks (Weiler, Moore, & Moyle, 2013). To create a diverse and high-quality range of experiences, park managers need to understand the potentially conflicting demands of different visitor groups.

Visitors typically favour specific park locations and times along with supporting facilities that best provide for their preferred activity. These choices are reflected in visitors' spatio-temporal usage patterns of tourism and recreation areas (Wolf et al., 2013, Wolf and Wohlfart, 2014). Parks need to supply experiences and facilities consistent with demand to satisfy visitor expectations and to protect natural resources from oversupply (Buhalis, 2000). Popular activity groups in parks around urban centres, such as mountain bikers, require tracks with distinct properties to achieve a desired experience for different styles of riding and trip motivations (Newsome and Davies, 2009, Symmonds et al., 2000). Hence, park tourism and recreation management requires critical information on the frequencies and spatial patterns of park use as a predictor of demand (Eagles, 2014), and the underlying visitor motivations that inform management actions to improve visitor experiences. Spatially-explicit information is also needed to better manage crowded areas and conflicts, and to foresee the partitioning of resources between visitor groups (Ostermann, 2009). However, for most parks there is very little information available on the spatio-temporal distributions of visitors and their location-specific needs (van Schaick, 2010).

While the use of detailed spatial data on the ecology, infrastructure, and other attributes of the landscape is common, social data at a similar spatial scale are much rarer, limiting visitor activity management and planning in parks. This issue is aggravated where the activity extends beyond park boundaries across land tenures managed by multiple agencies with variable approaches to visitor data collection and sharing. Mountain biking, for example, occurs on a range of public land tenures as well as on private lands such as commercial mountain bike parks. This demonstrates the need to increase the spatial extent of visitor monitoring efforts beyond park boundaries.

Spatially explicit social data on management processes of public lands can be collected from stakeholders through participatory planning processes. Growing attention has been given to the importance of engaging people for tourism and recreation planning across single and multiple land tenures. Public participation can enhance the quality and acceptance of decisions with spatial implications and alleviate concerns of the community when altering their environment (Raymond et al., 2009). Public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) use geospatial technology to inform planning processes with public knowledge by inviting participants to provide geospatial information about perceived attributes of place (Sieber, 2006). This has relevance for tourism and recreation areas where visitors have particular needs regarding specific precincts and facilities such as tracks used for mountain biking. Brown and Weber (2011) described PPGIS as “ … the practice of GIS and mapping at local levels to produce knowledge of place”. This methodology finds application in many research areas such as socio-ecological hotspot mapping (Alessa, Kliskey, & Brown, 2008), identification of ecosystem services (Brown, Montag, et al., 2012, Brown and Raymond, 2014, Raymond et al., 2009), land use conflicts (Brown & Raymond, 2014), forest planning (Brown and Donovan, 2013, Brown and Reed, 2012), tourism management (Brown, 2006, Marzuki et al., 2012), public land management (Brown, Weber, & de Bie, 2014), and a growing list of other applications (see Brown & Kyttä, 2014 for a recent review). Further, Brown and Weber (2011) consider PPGIS to have great potential to advance national park planning of visitor experiences while there is a growing trend in the use of spatial information in park and protected areas management (Beeco & Brown, 2013). In PPGIS mapping, information is solicited by requesting participants to identify and mark locations on a map about perceived place attributes. PPGIS mapping may be administered in the field (e.g., private homes, park visitor centres) through mail surveys (Brown, 2004), stakeholder workshops (Donovan et al., 2009) or personal interviews and surveys (Donovan et al., 2009, Raymond et al., 2009) that typically use a hardcopy form of data collection. In contrast, internet-based implementations of PPGIS mapping, as advertised through mass media, email lists or online panels have numerous advantages (as reviewed by Pocewicz, Nielsen-Pincus, Brown, & Schnitzer, 2012) especially in the reduction of costs and the increased efficiency of data collection and entry (Couper & Miller, 2008). It is useful to compare the results achieved with both field- and internet-based PPGIS mapping to determine the representativeness of the recruited sample population and to identify other potential biases resulting from the data collection (Olsen, 2009). Outcomes that may vary with the mode of the PPGIS application include the participation rate, and the number and spatial distribution of mapped attributes of place. For example, Pocewicz et al. (2012) found that field-based PPGIS resulted in higher participation rates and greater numbers of mapped attributes.

PPGIS mapping provides insights into spatial distributions of attributes such as the locations people report to visit, and possibly the frequency of visitation, but not the exact time spent at specific facilities and attractions. In contrast, GPS tracking data presents actual (vs. reported) spatio-temporal distributions of visitors and captures entire travel routes (vs. singular locations) of visitors (Orellana et al., 2012, Wolf et al., 2012). Typically this information is collected from visitors equipped with personal GPS receivers such as smartphones using tracking applications, or those supplied by a researcher. GPS receivers are easy to use with comparatively little effort required from participants apart from carrying and returning the equipment. More effort is involved in PPGIS mapping where participants need to accurately recall, locate, and mark specific places on a map to assign spatial attributes. In this study, we will evaluate the benefits and disadvantages of GPS tracking and PPGIS mapping to address different park management questions.

National parks and other public green spaces are frequented for a range of activities including mountain biking (Heer et al., 2003, Newsome and Davies, 2009). In recent decades the popularity of mountain biking has increased significantly in Australia, New Zealand (Mason and Leberman, 2000, Newsome and Davies, 2009, Ryan, 2005), North America (Attarian, 2001, Cordell, 2008) and Europe (Christie et al., 2006, Heer et al., 2003). A study by Christie et al. (2006) for instance revealed that technical single-track mountain biking and cross-country mountain biking, enjoyed by 20.0% and 10.5% of all visitors, respectively, were some of the most common visitor activities in seven forest areas in Great Britain. The Australian Cycling Participation survey 2013 (Australian Bicycle Council, 2013) showed that 37.4% of people in Australia participated in cycling over the last year with an increasing trend compared to previous years. The survey, however, did not segment by type of cycling.

Our study focused on mountain biking in the semi-rural, Northern Sydney area where demand for this activity is rapidly growing in national parks and surrounding land tenures. Increasing demand has resulted in the development of formal strategies to promote and sustain high-quality mountain biking experiences in national parks in Sydney and other parts of New South Wales (NSW). In 2011, the Office of Environment and Heritage NSW (2011) published a strategy that outlines the provision of high quality, sustainable mountain biking experiences that (1) improve and maintain existing tracks, (2) identify suitable links between tracks, and (3) where appropriate, develop new mountain biking experiences consistent with standards for design, construction, and maintenance proposed by the International Mountain Bicycling Association. The strategy targets all skill levels, as well as families and other travel groups to provide diverse riding experiences. In the strategy, high importance is placed on communication and consultation to build a strong partnership between management agencies and public stakeholders of mountain biking activities. Mountain biking currently co-exists with other tourism and recreation activities on certain multi-use trails in the region where potential conflicts need to be monitored closely, especially if demand for this activity continues to grow.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of PPGIS in park visitor activity planning, exemplified in the context of mountain biking in Northern Sydney. The methods used and the findings of our study are relevant to the full spectrum of travel experiences on a continuum ranging from recreational activity to tourism experiences (McKercher, 1996). Our specific research questions include: (1) What are the spatial distributions and location-based reasons for mountain biking in the region; and (2) What location-specific management actions are required to improve existing experiences. We analyse our study results at different spatial scales: the Northern Sydney region, inside vs. outside national parks, and for individual tracks. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use PPGIS methods to evaluate mountain biking activities. Participant characteristics, collected from survey questions, are integrated with the spatial data to address more complex questions such as how rider preferences vary with skills and motivations. Finally, we examine PPGIS mapping results, conducted in the field or on-line, with GPS tracking results to validate the accuracy of the PPGIS methods.

Section snippets

Study area

This study was conducted approximately 5 km north of the Sydney central business district and the Sydney Harbour, covering an area of 561 km² (Fig. 1). The study area encompasses several local government councils, the Municipality of Lane Cove and the City of Ryde. A variety of national parks are accessible to riders including Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park (14,882 ha), Garigal National Park (2150 ha), Berowra Valley National Park (3884 ha), Lane Cove National Park (635 ha) and parts of Sydney

Participant characteristics and rider profiles

In total, 516 mountain bikers completed the questionnaire and placed PPGIS markers inside the study area. The majority of mountain bikers (81%) completed the study online. Most participants intercepted in the field were sampled on weekends during sunny weather conditions and temperatures ranging between 15° and 30 °C. Participation rates in the field were greater than 80%. Altogether, we sampled 19 beginner, 99 intermediate, 247 advanced, and 151 expert mountain bikers.

Mountain bikers comprised

Management questions for tourism and recreation planning in parks

We used different modes of PPGIS data collection to identify the spatial distributions and associated reasons for park visitor activity (mountain biking) in Northern Sydney, and to determine location-specific actions that could improve existing experiences. This information provides management direction at different spatial planning scales to prioritize resource allocation, monitor impacts, identify areas that require cross-tenure planning, promote qualities of particular areas to less informed

Conclusions and implications for future research

Our public participation GIS approach was effective for engaging park visitors in a complex and spatially explicit park planning process involving multi-scale and cross-tenure analysis. Valuable insights were gained in our study on visitor distributions and needs from spatial data covering a large geographic area with relatively low sampling effort. Participant information from the survey questions complemented the spatial data. Mapping data gathered both online and in the field, combined with

Acknowledgements

The research was funded by the Customer Experience Division of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Office of Environment and Heritage. The authors gratefully acknowledge mountain biker clubs, associations, other forums and outlets that promoted this research. Insightful comments from three anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of this paper are also gratefully acknowledged.

Dr. Isabelle Wolf is a protected areas specialist including on all aspects of park visitor research and monitoring, sustainable visitor experience development and management. She is leading GIS-related visitor monitoring projects. Trained as an ecologist, her speciality are the human dimensions of ecosystems, with recent work on animal behaviour and flora and fauna communities in fragmented and disturbed habitats. Isabelle has a PhD degree from the University of New South Wales and has

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    Dr. Isabelle Wolf is a protected areas specialist including on all aspects of park visitor research and monitoring, sustainable visitor experience development and management. She is leading GIS-related visitor monitoring projects. Trained as an ecologist, her speciality are the human dimensions of ecosystems, with recent work on animal behaviour and flora and fauna communities in fragmented and disturbed habitats. Isabelle has a PhD degree from the University of New South Wales and has published in both social and environmental science journals.

    Teresa Wohlfart holds a B.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences and M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences and Resources Management from Justus-Liebig University of Giessen, Germany. She is currently collaborating with the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage on applied park visitor research in Sydney, Australia. Her expertise extends to innovative visitor monitoring techniques including GPS tracking and GIS. Teresa has a strong interest in communicating sustainability and conservation values through research outcomes.

    Assoc. Prof. Greg Brown has published in the areas of land use planning, natural resource policy, the human dimensions of ecosystem management, parks and protected areas management, and socio-economic assessment of rural communities. His current research involves developing methods to expand and enhance public involvement in environmental planning by having individuals map spatial measures of landscape values, management preferences, and special places in both terrestrial and marine environments.

    Abraham Bartolomé Lasa is a Geographic Information Systems expert with an Environmental Science Degree from the University of Salamanca. His applications of GIS methods include landscape planning, assessment of biological resources for conservation, urban parks and open space planning, national park planning.

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