Understanding patterns of outdoor recreation in Canadian parks using volunteered geographic information and big data
Abstract
Understanding human-environment interactions in Canada's non-urban natural areas is essential for strategically managing ecosystem health and services. Volunteered geographic information (VGI) sources can provide researchers and management groups with valuable insights into human activity in these areas. In this thesis, I study how VGI sources can be used to estimate official visitation statistics in Canadian national parks and reveal fine-scale spatial and temporal outdoor activity patterns across Canada. I find that the VGI sources Flickr, AllTrails, and Strava can be used to model visitation in Canadian national parks, with the combination of AllTrails and Strava producing the best model. I also find that combining VGI sources with de-identified and aggregated network mobility data from TELUS reveals higher activity intensity in areas closer to large urban population centres, in summers, and on weekends. My thesis enhances our understanding of using VGI sources as a proxy for outdoor activity in Canada.