STATE-OF-THE-ART METHODS for Research, Planning, and Determining the Benefits of Outdoor Recreation
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STATE-OF-THE-ART METHODS for research, planning, and determining the benefits of outdoor recreation PACIFIC SOUTHWEST Forest and Ranee Experiment station FOREST SERVICE U.S.DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE P.O. BOX 245, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 94701 USDA FOREST SERVICE GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PSW-20 11977 STATE-OF-THE-ART METHODS for research, plan, ¥qand determining the benefits of oudoor recreation Gary H. Elsner, Compiler CONTENTS Improvement of Demand Studies as Tool for Planning Outdoor Recreation. ......................... 1 H. N. van Lier Forecasting the Demand-Response to Changes in Recreational Site Characteristics ..................... 11 Peter Greiq On the Use of Home and Site Surveys in Recrea Research . 23 Mordechai Shechter Relative Value of Selected Outdoor Recreation Activity Areas . 27 Joseph E. Hoffman, Jr. A Recreational Visitor Travel Simulation Model as an Aid to Management Planning. ..................... 31 Robert C. Lucas and Mordechai Shechter A Survey of Wildlife-Related Recreation in the Tennessee ValleyRegion ......................... 36 John L. Mechler and E. Lawrence Klein Mathematical programming in the Context of Planning for Multiple Goals ........................ 46 A. B. Rudra Investigations on Recreational Forested Areas. ........ 60 Ulrich Amer Elsner, Gary H., compiler. 1977. State-of-the-art methods for research, planning, and determining the benefits of outdoor recreation. USDA Forest Serv. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-20, 62 p., illus. Pacific South- west Forest and Range Exp. Stn., Berkeley, Calif. These eight papers were oresented at Working Party S6.01-3, XV I th World Congress of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, Oslo, Norway, June 22, 1976. Topics covered include (a) improving studies on demand for outdoor recreation, (b) forecasting changes in number of visitors after a change in recreational qua1 ity at an area, (c) comparing the use of site surveys with hone interviews for recreation planning, (d) measuring the relative value of selected outdoor recreation activity areas, (e) model ing changes in use or area conditions to determine effects on use patterns and encounters between visitor groups, (f) surveying wildlife-related recreation to determine impact on a local economy, (g) applying mathematical programing in the context of planning for multiple goals, and (h) investigating the degree of aforestation preferred for different broad categories of land uses in recreational areas. Oxford: 907.2 Retrieval Terms: outdoor recreation; forest recreation; recreation area planning. GARY H. ELSNER is in charge of land management and landscape planning method- ology research at the Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Berkeley, California. He is chairman, Working Party S6.01-3--Methodologies for Research, Planning and Determination of Benefits of Outdoor Recreation, International Union of Forestry Research Organizations. The Authors ULRICH AMMER is professor, School of Forestry, University of Munich, Germany. PETER GREIG is associated with the Department of Forestry, Oxford University, Great Britain, and the Forests Commission, Victoria, Australia. JOSEPH E. HOFFMAN, JR. is assistant professor, College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Range Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow. E. LAWRENCE KLEIN is staff forester, Division of Forestry, Fisheries, and Wildlife Development, Tennessee Valley Authority, Norris, Tennessee. ROBERT C. LUCAS is research social scientist, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture, Missoula, Montana. JOHN L. MECHLER is supervisor of wild- life management, Land Between The Lakes, Golden Pond, Kentucky. A. B. RUDRA is Senior Lecturer, School of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Melbourne, Australia. MORDECHAI SHECHTER is senior lecturer, Faculty of Industrial and Management Engineering, Technion--Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. H. N. VAN LIER is associate professor, Department of Land and Water Use, Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands. PREFACE The challenge of planning for outdoor fects upon use patterns and encounters between recreation is shared by many countries visitor groups. It was developed to help ex- throughout the world. This publication offers plain and predict use patterns and encounters a selection of state-of-the-art papers by au- within U.S. Wilderness areas where solitude is thors from several countries which are active- often a prime objective, and, consequently ly dealing with this challenge. The eight where management would often 1 ike to decrease papers were prepared for the International encounters. However, this same model may be Union of Forestry Research Organizations useful in examining a1 ternat ive management (IUFRO) XVI World Congress, held in Oslo, strategies in areas where management may wish Norway, June 20-July 2, 1976. They are the to increase encounters, e.g., in parks where formal discussion papers for IUFRO Working wildl ife observations are important and where Party, S6.01-3, Methodologies for Research, such an event may be termed an encounter. The Planning, and Determination of Benefits of approach may indeed by appropriate for simula- Outdoor Recreation, which met on June 22. ting a wide range of management alternatives in a wide array of dispersed outdoor recrea- The lead paper by H. N. Van Lier sets the tion systems. stage for the papers that follow by describing past demand mdeling approaches, explaining Determining the relationship between hunt- their strengths and weaknesses relating to ing, fishing, nonconsumptive wildlife use and planning needs, and making several suggestions the local economy is a difficult but worthwhile for improvements including the need to study task for wildl ife-related recreation planning. in depth the separate influence of the three John L. Mechler and E. Lawrence Klein report on basic system components--origin, destination, a major study of wildlife in the southeastern and linkage--and the need to adequately model United States. Their paper is instructive both substitutability. The next paper, by Peter in terms of the area studied and in terms of Greig, investigates in some detail the desti- illustrating how a careful study of gross ex- nation element and the question of substituta- penditures may be useful to the objective plan- bility. The paper explains and illustrates ing of wildl ife-related recreation which my with simple numerical examples for ski areas a have a positive monetary impact on a local model for forecasting the short-term change in economy. number of visitors to an area which result from a change in the destination's quality. Long-range planning for adequate outdoor recreation areas is usually done in a context Mordechai Shechter's paper compares in in which recreation values must be compared close detail two approaches to estimating out- with other uses for the land, such as, timber door recreation use and benefit information. production. A. B. Rudra specifies carefully On the basis of two comprehensive studies of the use of goal programing and explains its ap- the largest national park in Israel, he con- pl ication to an illustrative area containing cludes that site surveys are often more effi- potential for recreation, timber and mu1 t iple cient and cheaper than home interviews. How- uses. Since many of the parameters needed for ever, the paper recommends comprehensive home either conventional linear programing or goal surveys at longer intervals, say every I0 programing are never known with complete cer- years, for the collection of additional data tainty, his paper also includes a brief intro- and for broad area planning. duction to the use of stochastic programing and explains its advantages. Joseph E. Hoffman's paper illustrates the use of two measures of the value/cost ratio in The long-range planning of alternative comparing the perceived value with the devel- uses of landscape units has received intensive opment and management costs for several alter- investigations in Germany. Ulrich Ammer's pa- native outdoor recreation activity areas. His per highlights the results of these studies in data indicate that areas with low development terms of the preferred degree of aforestation. costs may have a higher value/cost ratio than His conclusions apply to forested lands in and normally expected. around populated areas and rural areas. The results are compared with the current propor- The report by Robert C. Lucas and Morde- tions of forested lands in each category and chai Shechter describes an important and prac- implications for changes in planning goals are tical model for simulating changes in manage- described. ment policy or access within dispersed outdoor recreation areas. The model predicts the ef- These papers were prepared for an international conference of forestry objectivity. researchers. But each paper has its own relevance to a specific decisionmaking One goal of IUFb ,s to increase the situation and as such may be useful to communication among forestry researchers recreation managers or planners who are worldwide. This pub1 icat ion was designed searching for a way to gain additional to help achieve that goal. Improvement of Demand Studies as Tool For Planning Outdoor Recreation H. N. Van Lier Abstract--Planning for recreation sites in forested areas requires solution to the sequence of problems of determining the type, location, capacity, and layout of facilities. Models have been developed to