Characteristics and needs of different user groups in the urban forest of Stuttgart

Abstract

In the urban forest of Stuttgart the forest roads are used by a growing number of people for recreational and leisure activities. To manage and channel the different user groups within an optimised forest road network needs a lot of information: Number and composition of visitors, demands of different user groups concerning standard of roads and trails they use for their activities, conflicts that may rise between different users using the same road at the same time, dedication of roads to special activities (e.g. fitness trail, hiking trail). A relatively new method of video monitoring was used to collect long-term information about number and composition of visitors, personal interviews with “experts” were made to obtain information about the specific demands of the different user groups, and analysis of road network was done with the help of GIS. The results show that these tools complement one another quite well and the combination of obtained data may help to channel visitor flows and to minimise conflicts between different user groups.