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Abstract |
This paper documents an attempt to simulate spatially the behavior of a group of sampled overnight visitors in a dispersed recreation setting – the Humphrey’s Basin region of the John Muir Wilderness in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. This study utilizes spatial data depicting the behavior of backcountry visitors in Humphrey’s Basin to formulate a model based on cost surface techniques in a geographic information system (GIS) to develop a measure of visitor effort expenditure as a way of describing factors influencing spatial distribution of camping behavior. This hiking effort index model (HEI) measures the accumulative cost hikers expended to traverse varying distances between campsite locations in the study area. The cost grid input for the HEI model consisted of a) a slope factor derived from digital elevation models (DEM), b) the measured hiking times of backpackers at various slopes, and c) the relative cost of traveling either on or off trail. The model measures relative travel cost in units of hiking minutes. The model was tested using a subsample of the actual spatial data of visitor behavior not used in the running of the HEI model. Results indicate that the HEI model does accurately simulate the spatial distribution of visitors. This study thus suggests that human behavior in a dispersed recreation setting can be successfully modeled as well as pointing to ways of further improving simulation techniques |
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