Mapping Landscape Scarring Locations to Research Visitor Experience

To gain a better understanding of spatial patterns of dispersed camping in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, Concentrated Use Analysis (CUA) was conducted in 2006 using mapping-grade Global Positioning System (GPS) technology in the Stansbury Mountains and Logan Ranger District. These data were collected for the purpose of analyzing and tracking user-created campsites (i.e., dispersed campsites not maintained by public land management agencies). The overall goal of CUA is to identify user-created dispersed recreation sites and evaluate their condition. Specific goals of CUA are to: categorize selective site attributes; collect attribute information using mapping-grade GPS; create Geographic Information System (GIS) layers from the GPS data; integrate new and existing GIS layers to create an accurate field-based GIS. This initial inventory also captured attributes that show the varied magnitude of spatial impact at each mapped site as well as the geographic location of each mapped campsite.

The resulting data are used to create GIS data for analysis of the user-created campsites. An important component of this initial mapping effort is the collection and integration of ground photography and short video clips in the final GIS. In order to further document the degree to which each user-created campsite affects the landscape and therefore user experience, research that involves the gathering of detailed visual information for select CUA user-created campsites will be conducted in the laboratory using photo elicitation techniques by leveraging QuickTime® Virtual Reality (QTVR) technology for 360° panoramic imagery. In 2007 the author re-visited certain CUA user-created campsites in the Stansbury Mountains and collected imagery necessary for the creation of QTVR imagery.

The data collected for this project will be further analyzed during the author’s thesis research to capture and measure psychological impacts at selected CUA user-created campsites. Using the Perceived Restorative Scale (PRS) developed by Kaplan and Kaplan (1989), information will be electronically captured at geographic locations near previously mapped user-created campsites to test a visitor’s intrinsic interpretation of the psychological characteristics at a given user-created campsite. Responses provided by the research participants will be used to measure the natural restorative qualities for a given user-created campsite. Results of this analysis will contribute important information to setting Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) in heavily used recreation locations.