Visualizing Visitor Use Trends at California Campsites to Explore Equitable Access

A wide variety of outdoor recreation activities are offered by federal public land management agencies in the United States. However, many studies have shown that federal public lands are accessed unequally due to historical discrimination and current inequities. This capstone project utilizes reservation data from Recreation.gov and US Census data to analyze spatial and demand patterns of visitor access at reservable overnight sites (such as campgrounds, cabins, hike-in sites, and more). The Outdoor Equity App is an interactive app that gives users tools to summarize data, explore relationships between Recreation.gov and US Census variables, and view maps of where visitors are coming from for reservable sites in California in 2018. This tool supports federal public land managers and their equity goals, and can be a springboard for researchers who have questions about outdoor recreation. It also has the potential to be a dynamic tool that empowers visitors to access the information and resources they need to explore outdoor recreation.

Acknowledgements

Bren School: Frank Davis, Professor; Jacob Gellman, PhD Student; Brad Hill, IT Director; Allison Horst, Assistant Teaching Professor; Kat Le, Technical Applications Manager; Jamie Montgomery, MEDS Program Coordinator; MEDS ‘22 Cohort

NCEAS: Samantha Csik, Data Training Coordinator; Dr. Kaitlyn Gaynor, Director’s Postdoctoral Scholar

Will Rice, Assistant Professor, University of Montana

Recreation One Stop: Rick DeLappe, Program Manager; Dr. Jeff Leon, Chief Technologist and Product Manager; Janelle Smith, Public Affairs Specialist; Jason Smurthwaite, Data Lead; Tunde Sobowale, IT Product Manager

Soyoung Park, Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University

Noah Davidson, Senior Software Engineer