Simulating Visitor Impact on Public Land

How do visitor activities affect a park? SNR Professor Randy Gimblett is working with colleagues around the globe, using new tools to address the complex questions of visitor management.

From foot traffic in a botanical garden in Australia to hunter behavior in Prince William Sound, the ways in which visitors use public land, and the impacts they have are difficult to monitor, and even more challenging to predict. Using software simulations of visitor use and impact, Dr. Randy Gimblett and his colleagues develop a framework to aid difficult management decisions.

The simulations include software robots or ‘agents' who move across space (the park's landscape) and time (a day or week of use) and are based on data collected from real park visitors. Because park management aims to strike a balance between people's outdoor experience, and the health of the natural system, Dr. Gimblett monitors and then simulates impacts from soil compression to the quality of a hiker's wilderness experience. A new book, "Monitoring, Simulation and Management of Visitor Landscapes", summarizes the findings of Dr. Gimblett and his colleagues across the globe, and promises to set a foundation for this emerging field.