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Abstract |
This working paper presents a framework for understanding responsible environmental behaviour as a visitor-monitoring tool. Visitor use data forms the basis of any successful visitor management plan to understand user knowledge, awareness and attitudes about pollution issues in order to develop management policies and actions that enhance appropriate visitor behaviour. A case study of the application of a predictive behavioural model on the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA involving boater environmental behaviour as a social indicator is discussed. Results indicate that knowledge of water pollution issues, awareness of the consequences, equipment issues such as boat length and boat type, and situational factors that constrain or hinder appropriate behaviour were indicators of appropriate behaviour. A structural equation path diagram model was tested using AMOS student version 4.01 using up to seven of the eight predictors from boating behaviour case study to demonstrate the strength of a path analysis procedure. Results model those of the stepwise regression procedures used in the original study, yet the path diagrams demonstrate ease of interpreting the structural relationships among variables in a regression equation. Implications for management actions in the case study situation are given followed by a proposed researchmonitoring program coupling social science techniques with the natural sciences. |
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