Using space syntax measures to assess the human impact on ground cover plant communities in recreational forests

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This study used space syntax theory to predict the recreational impact on natural forest ecosystems. We assumed a correlation between specific space syntax measures and parameters that describe the recreational impact on forest ecosystems. For constructing a model of spatial structure of recreational forest, we chose an angular segment map of a road network. Most of the recreational impact is caused by trampling which we used to evaluate the visitors traffic. Field observations of ground cover were made on transects. For the road network we used the natural logarithm of the T1024 Choice measure, called LNchoice, and divided the range of values into two subsets. The subset ‘zone 0’ included segments where LNchoice was lower than the mean value of LNchoice, while the subset ‘zone 1’ included all other segments. Comparative analysis of the field data and indicators of the road network confirmed that zone 1 had higher trampling impacts than zone 0. In zone 1, degree of coverage by typical forest plants and their degree of dominance were lower than in zone 0, and the percentage of dead ground cover was greater. These results show that space syntax theory has great potential for landscape design and management of recreational forests.