TITLE:
Research Note: A Multi-Method Approach to Monitor Recreational Trail Usage in Complex Spatial Settings
AUTHORS:
Sharon A. Jones, Alex Junge, Ruth Dittrich
KEYWORDS:
Visitor Behavior, Trail Monitoring, Pedestrian Trails, Infrared Sensors
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Forestry,
Vol.13 No.1,
November
15,
2022
ABSTRACT: Trail use by pedestrians has become more popular in the United States
over the last decade although few studies explore the use of technology to monitor
high use trails. Monitoring trail
users is an important part of trail management and an optimal monitoring system
usually depends on site-specific characteristics. The objective of this study
was to demonstrate how using a multi-methods system to monitor backcountry
trail usage in complex spatial settings can be a useful approach for collecting
the information that trail managers need. Given the national growth in
recreational hiking, we were particularly interested in exploring these issues
for highly visited trails close to urban areas and selected a portion of the
Larch Trail leading to the top of Multnomah Falls for the study. The
multi-methods approach that we used included a combination of automated
infrared sensor counts, manual counts, parking lot data from an inductive loop,
and travel time estimates collected with low-energy Bluetooth sensors. We found
that using multiple methods allowed for a cost-effective and rich data set that
considered the site characteristics and the specific need of the trail
managers. We expect that many backcountry trail settings have complex landscape
and physical design without robust pre-existing baseline data and hope that our
insights will aid trail managers as they strive for a sustainable balance
between human use and landscape impact.