Digital footprints: Incorporating crowdsourced geographic information for protected area management

Abstract

Biodiversity loss driven by anthropogenic pressures highlights the importance of conservation efforts in protected areas globally. Protected areas are also locations providing myriad ecosystem services, including recreation and tourism. Advancements in mobile and web technologies have expanded the capabilities and accessibility of crowdsourced spatial content increasingly leveraged for research. This study explores the use of crowdsourced geographic information to model, at varying temporal scales, spatial patterns of visitor use and identify factors contributing to distribution patterns in a dynamic landscape, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (Hawaii, USA). Specifically, this study integrated geotagged photo metadata publicly shared on Flickr with raster data about infrastructure and natural environmental using MaxEnt modelling. Infrastructure designated for visitor use (i.e., roads, trails) contributed most to models of visitor distribution for all years and seasons. During the spring months, elevation was also a top contributing variable to the model. Crowdsourced data provided empirical assessments of covariates associated with visitor distributions, highlighting how changes in infrastructure and environmental factors may influence visitor use, and therefore resource pressures, to help researchers, managers, and planners with efforts to mitigate negative impacts.