Nature-based Outdoor Recreation Research Articles

Outdoor recreationists’ engagement with weather: The weather-outdoor recreation process model

The role of weather in outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism constitutes a growing area of research. Yet how and when weather influences the individual outdoor recreation experience continues to warrant investigation. Furthermore, concepts and knowledge about human-weather relationships are scattered across several disciplines. This paper consolidates the literature and relationships into a conceptual model that illustrates the ways in which recreationists engage with weather during the nature-based outdoor recreation experience. At the core of the model, constructed using a multidisciplinary literature review and expert appraisal process, is the person-weather environment fit process. During each phase of the recreation experience, individuals assess and respond to weather conditions considering their recreational goals, chosen activity, comfort, health and safety, and site access. When faced with an incongruent fit, individuals engage in a process of weather constraints negotiation. Intervening factors and negotiation responses are highlighted, as are personal and other environmental factors that may influence perceptions of the thermal context and weather. The resulting conceptual model is intended to be applicable to most individuals, outdoor recreation activities and settings, and regions. The model can be used to situate existing outdoor recreation-weather research, stimulate future research, and inform management. Management implications•The Weather-Outdoor Recreation Process Model (WORP) provides fodder for academic discourse, testable hypotheses, research ideas, and advances our collective understanding of outdoor recreation.•The model provides outdoor recreation researchers and management interested in understanding how weather plays a role or otherwise influences recreationists' experiences and behaviors with a conceptual map of recreationist-weather interactions.•Researchers may choose to use the conceptual model and accompanying literature review as a means for exploring various concepts and relationships.•Recreation managers may consult the model in order to grasp the range of possible weather concerns and identify entry points for interventions to support year-round recreation and positive outcomes for different groups.•The model can be applied in a training or formal education environment as a basis to discuss the complexities of outdoor recreation and associated variables.•Practitioners can use the WORP to identify how improvements in infrastructure and/or information provision may help increase the ability of outdoor recreationists to negotiate weather constraints.

Factors promoting nature-based outdoor recreation during the daytime and evening

Urban green spaces are the most common places for nature-based recreational activities. However, the issues on which landscape characteristics during the daytime and lighting features during the evening can encourage recreational activities, and how to enhance the diversity of recreational activity in a place are poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, 20 sites of urban green spaces were sampled. The same scene at each site was photographed during the daytime and evening. The suitability of 10 nature-based recreational activities was assessed, and 17 characteristics of daytime landscapes and five lighting features in the evening were quantified. For daytime landscapes, the study found that reducing the amounts of man-made elements and vegetation density could encourage walking, improving water quality and reducing aquatic plants could promote fishing, increasing the coverage of waterscape and vegetation promoted chanting, increasing the coverage of waterscape would encourage sightseeing, enhancing the accessibility of waterscape was beneficial to meditating, and reducing the intensity of maintenance encouraged both gathering and tree climbing, but no measures could be identified for jogging, sitting and barbecue. For evening landscapes, setting the lighting sources in the distance of visitors' vision and increasing brightness of lighting could promote walking and jogging, increasing the number of lighting sources encouraged fishing, chanting, sightseeing, sitting, meditating and tree climbing, and the mixture of warm and cold light colors promoted gathering, while no measures were found to encourage barbecue. Decreasing the vegetation coverage could promote the diversity of recreational activity during the daytime, and increasing the number of lighting sources and reducing the brightness of lighting enhanced the diversity of recreational activity during the evening. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to propose the concept “diversity of recreational activity” and explore its driving factors. For daytime landscapes, decreasing the amount of man-made elements and thinning the thick vegetation can encourage walking; improving water quality and reducing the aquatic plants growing on water are convenient for fishing; increasing the coverage of waterscape and vegetation are efficient measures to encourage chanting; increasing the coverage of waterscape and enhancing the accessibility of waterscape can promote sightseeing and meditating, respectively; and reducing the maintenance of vegetation can encourage the activities of gathering and tree climbing. For evening landscapes, setting the lighting sources in the distant view of visitors and increasing the brightness of a place will encourage walking and jogging; increasing the number of lighting sources and setting the lighting sources in the close view of visitors encourage fishing; setting the mixture of warm and cold light can promote gathering, and increasing the number of lighting sources can encourage chanting, sightseeing, sitting, meditating and tree climbing. Decreasing vegetation coverage can enhance the diversity of recreational activities in daytime landscapes, while for evening landscapes, increasing lighting sources and reducing the brightness of lighting will improve the diversity of recreational activities. Based on theoretical analysis, this study suggests that the positive elements for recreational activity in daytime landscapes should be illuminated during the evening and the negative elements could be concealed by the darkness.

Environmentally responsible behaviour in outdoor recreation: the moderating impact of COVID-19 related risk perception

PurposeThis study examines the mediating role of motivation on outdoor recreation on the attitude–behavior and social marketing–behavior linkages. The paper scrutinizes the moderating impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) risk perception in transforming individual motivation on nature-based outdoor recreation into environmentally responsible behavior.Design/methodology/approachData were collected and conducted in Vietnamese National Parks. The dataset consists of 900 valid responses by domestic travelers. The research was operationalized using empirical data and employed structural equation modeling (SEM) and SPSS PROCESS analysis.FindingsFirst, this study confirms that outdoor recreation activities and business's marketing on social networks tend to transform into support for individual behavior in terms of protecting environment and having responsibility for environment. Second, the current paper also represents the academic efforts to contribute to outdoor recreation literature by explaining the current global problem that has caused serious upheaval in global society as well as individual life. The findings not only confirmed the mediating role of nature-based outdoor recreation motivation between attitude and behavior, but also examined the moderating effect of COVID-19 risk perception in the relationship between motivation and behavior.Originality/valueThe findings indicate the significant association of social marketing, environment attitudes, outdoor recreation motivation and environmentally responsible behavior. The findings not only confirmed the mediating role of nature-based outdoor recreation motivation between attitude and behavior, but also examined the moderating effect of COVID-19 risk perception in the relationship between motivation and behavior. These results provide key insights about examining visitors' behavior for environment protection during future infectious disease outbreaks.

자연 기반 아웃도어 레크리에이션에서 회복환경지각을 통한 자기결정 동기화 모델 검증: 등산활동을 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to test the model of Self-determined Motivation with perceived restorative environment in nature-based outdoor recreation context. This Model is based on Deci & Ryan(1985)’s Self-determination Theory, and has a new need, nature-relatedness need, adding to the Hierarchical Model of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation of Vallerand(1997). Perceived restorative environment of Attentive Restoration Theory(Kaplan, 1995) was used as a preceding factor influencing basic psychological needs. To achieve the goal of study, a total of 366 cases of hikers were surveyed at four Mountains. However, competence needs fulfillment had no effect on self-determined motivation. As a result, the hypothesis 1 was all supported and the hypothesis 2 was partially supported. Perceived restorative environment and basic psychological needs fulfillment had a significant relationship. The factor that had the greatest influence on intrinsic motivation was social need fulfillment, and the nature-relatedness need fulfillment factor was revealed to be the most influential on the identified motivation. The theoretical and practical implications based on the results analysis were suggested.

Mapping the natural heritage as a source of recreation services at national scale in Bulgaria

Natural heritage includes natural features or natural areas of outstanding universal value. At a national level, this value refers to the importance of ecosystems which can be considered as the spatial units representing the natural heritage of the particular area in terms of their values to people. Nature-based outdoor recreation represents an important service that interests millions of people and contributes to connecting them to nature, but it may also cause negative impacts in the form of pollution, erosion and habitats loss. We apply the ESTIMAP recreation model which provides a framework for a spatially-explicit assessment of local outdoor recreation and use it to identify and assess the natural heritage as a source of recreation services at a national level in Bulgaria. At the first stage of the study, we identify the natural heritage and the data sources to represent it in a spatially-explicit way. Then, we apply the module for recreation potential to assess the potential of the natural heritage to provide a recreation ecosystem service. At the third stage, the accessibility of the natural heritage is assessed in order to specify how the potential identified at the previous step can be really used. Finally, the recreation potential and accessibility are integrated into the recreation opportunity spectrum in order to develop the maps representing the ecosystem service supply provided by the natural heritage. The results are presented in form of a recreation potential map that reveals the capacity of natural heritage to provide the recreation potential, map of the accessibility of the natural heritage and map of the recreation opportunity spectrum representing the combination between the first two maps. The maps will be used for the development of an innovative geospatial platform designed to facilitate the access of the Bulgarian natural heritage to the European common knowledge and innovation markets. The results on the accessibility and recreation opportunity spectrum contribute to the development of the model in areas which were not covered by previous applications at the EU scale.

Environmental justice and outdoor recreation opportunities: A spatially explicit assessment in Oslo metropolitan area, Norway

Urban and peri-urban green space provides multiple recreation opportunities with important benefits for physical and psychological well-being, but access to these benefits is often unequally distributed. Various methodologies to assess outdoor recreation opportunities exist, but they rarely take into consideration dimensions of environmental justice. The aim of this paper is to map and assess nature-based outdoor recreation opportunities with a focus on green space accessibility for different social groups, and discuss the results in light of of environmental justice. We use the Oslo metropolitan area, Norway, as a case study. We combine statistical analysis with spatial modelling to assess recreation preferences and distribution of nature-based recreation opportunities. We also analyse accessibility for different social groups, including children and the elderly, migrants and low-income households. Our results show that most people prefer large wooded green areas, high density of trees, and presence of water, although preferences differ depending on age and place of residence. Areas for daily recreation are accessible to the whole population in the study area, but they are unequally distributed, migrants and low-income households having relatively less access. Our methodology can also be applied in other cities and metropolitan areas to assess differences in accessibility to outdoor recreation opportunities. We discuss whether and to which extent these results illustrate a situation of environmental injustice. We conclude that the relation between access to green space and environmental justice can be complex, and that injustice may not automatically result from uneven access.

Introduction to Wilderness Medicine-A Medical School Elective.

This curriculum provides a capstone experience for fourth year medical students, integrating aspects of the basic sciences and clinical skills in the care of wilderness medicine conditions. The duration of this course is 2 weeks. Since passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, leading to the protection and expansion of wilderness areas, there has been steady growth in participation in outdoor recreational activities.1 Between the years of 2000 to 2009, there was a 7.5% increase in the total number of individuals participating in outdoor recreation. Notably, during this same timeline, there has also been a 7.1% increase in the total number of people participating in "nature-based outdoor recreation." 2 Acknowledging this rising interest in the outdoors, along with increasing accessibility to remote locations, it has become clear that healthcare providers must now attain the ability to both identify and treat conditions unique to these environments.In addition to discrete medical conditions unique to environmental medicine, the practice of wilderness medicine also encompasses the management of the familiar, the "bread-and-butter" medical illnesses, occurring in the unfamiliar, nonclinical environment. Management of these conditions requires both a knowledge of core life support principles and an adaptability and awareness of the non-medical factors affecting a patient's care.Wilderness Medicine also teaches core principles of austere medicine - healthcare administration in a resource-limited environment. The skills acquired in a wilderness medical course provide not only training in the wilderness setting, but also encompass medical care necessary in instances of disaster relief, terrorist events, and international medical missions.3 Additionally, management of discrete wilderness medicine conditions provides a context to review toxicologic biomechanisms and pathophysiology shared by other, more common conditions.For these myriad reasons, a wilderness medicine elective in medical school provides students with more than a divergent experience; it provides a review and expansion of core medical principles increasingly applicable to all specialties. The primary objective of this course is to provide fourth year medical students an introduction to wilderness medicine. Students will be able to: explain fundamental concepts of practicing medicine in austere conditions; identify and initiate treatment for common wilderness medicine conditions; and utilize the non-medical aspects of providing care in austere environments. The educational strategies used in this curriculum include a combination of lecture-based and experiential learning activities, structured through the lens of Kolb's theory of experiential learning. Core knowledge is preferentially imparted during outdoor experiential components, allowing adaptable, true-environment training. Sessions are complemented by assigned pre-reading in Auerbach's Wilderness Medicine4 textbook to create a flipped outdoor-classroom experience. In addition to a final examination, the course will include a final multi-day expedition designed to allow students an opportunity to demonstrate their wilderness medicine knowledge. The course format opens it to adaptation as a longitudinal curriculum. Finally, this course may be adapted to serve resident education purposes. This curriculum has been used and vetted at the authors' institutions with over 50 medical students. All individual comments were reviewed for applicability, trends noted, and the course was further refined. Student final assessment scores were reviewed to refine the content taught and clarity of assessment. The current iteration of the curriculum received the following on a 5-point Likert scale by students on post-course evaluation forms: 4.91 for overall educational experience, 4.82 for curriculum effectiveness, and 5.00 for effective faculty instruction. As a result of comments, the use of the flipped-classroom model throughout the course has increased. Topics frequently encountered in spontaneous discussion due to regional importance have been included. Overall, this course has proven both popular and successful. Due to the dynamic and divergent nature of this as a medical school course, the authors have noted increased levels of student engagement with the material. Increasing reliance on the flipped-classroom model with student-led scenarios and discussions has increased students' ability to recall and apply their knowledge to scenarios during the final expedition. The broad range of conditions included in wilderness medicine provides a unique framework to highlight the relevance of the basic medical sciences and review core medical principles. Wilderness trauma stabilization, patient transportation, acute mountain sickness, high-altitude cerebral edema, high-altitude pulmonary edema, hypothermia, frostbite, orienteering, survival skills, expedition medical kits, marine envenomation, decompression illness, plant toxidromes, snake envenomation, arthropod envenomation, high-angle rescue, search and rescue, heat illness, lightning strike, tick-related illness, disaster response, international medicine.4.

자연기반 야외활동 참여자의 가치가 미세먼지위험지각과 책임귀인을 통해 환경정책지지에 미치는 영향 : VBN(Value-Belief-Norm)이론을 적용

자연기반 야외활동 참여자의 가치가 미세먼지위험지각과 책임귀인을 통해 환경정책지지에 미치는 영향 : VBN(Value-Belief-Norm)이론을 적용

Nature-based outdoor recreation trips: Duration, travel mode and location

This paper studies the allocation of time to outdoor recreation trips in various natural environment types. We merge a multiple discrete-continuous demand system for time allocation with a discrete choice model for destination and travel mode choice. Accessibility enters the time allocation model through the logsum of the travel mode/destination choice stage.The model is estimated on data for the Netherlands, which was gathered through an activity diary approach that covers one entire year. Our model shows that personal characteristics, household characteristics, contextual variables and accessibility all augment the allocation of time to the set of natural environment types. The resulting estimates allow us to evaluate outdoor recreation policy initiatives, and we simulate the impact of changes in the availability of natural environment types with a constrained optimization approach. We show that time allocation changes are rather small with our simulated policy initiative, but have the intended effect on the group of consumers which the policy initiative aims for.

Outdoor recreation motivation and site preferences across diverse racial/ethnic groups: A case study of Georgia state parks

As the demographic composition of the United States changes, racial and ethnic minorities constitute a larger proportion of the overall population. Understanding the nature-based outdoor recreation behavior of these groups has therefore become increasingly important to public land managers. This study examined racial and ethnic differences in motivations and site preferences of diverse Georgia state park visitors. Data were collected via intercept surveys of visitors to three state parks in northern Georgia (n=1207). Analyses revealed four broad motivational categories: social interaction, physical health and fitness, relaxation and restoration, and nature interaction. Setting preferences focused on three types of park environments: natural areas, maintained outdoor areas, and developed outdoor areas and facilities. Visitors rated all motivation categories as important; however, social interaction motivations were most popular across all groups. Latinos were more socially motivated in their visitation than all other groups, highlighting the potential value of state park settings in meeting activity needs unique to the Latino community. African American and Asian visitors were generally less likely than other groups to rate nature interaction as an important motivation. Associations between specific motivations and site preferences were observed, with social interaction motivations strongly associated with developed and maintained areas, and physical health and fitness motivations more strongly associated with natural areas. All groups of state park users reported a stronger preference for developed and maintained outdoor areas relative to natural areas. Management implicationsEfforts to understand and capitalize on diverse recreation motivations and preferences can help park managers accommodate the needs and desires of constituents from different racial and ethnic groups. Results of this study highlight the strong link between motivations and site preferences, illustrating how park design and management can facilitate or impede different types of experiences for visitors from all cultural backgrounds.

Underprivileged Youths’ Participation in Nature-Based Outdoor Recreation: Motivations, Constraints, and Barriers

Underprivileged Youths’ Participation in Nature-Based Outdoor Recreation: Motivations, Constraints, and Barriers

Factors that contribute to community members’ support of local nature centers

Nature centers can serve as valuable community institutions if they are seen as providing important services to the community. Through survey research in communities surrounding 16 nature centers in the United States, we examine the attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that drive hypothetical support for nature centers from local residents. Respondents who recognized centers as institutions that provide opportunities for leisure and connection with nature; contribute to civic engagement; and bolster local economies, community pride, and aesthetics reported the greatest likelihood of donating, volunteering, or responding to threats at local centers. Additional predictors of support included positive evaluations of staff members, perceptions of positive attitudes toward the center held by other community members, familiarity with center activities, pro-environmental attitudes, and past donation or volunteering. The findings highlight the potential returns for centers that expand their activities and operations beyond more traditional roles of providing nature-based outdoor recreation and environmental education experiences.

Preferences and willingness to pay for close to home nature for outdoor recreation in Sweden

In Sweden there is a strong tradition of using nature areas for outdoor recreation. This paper reports on a study which explored preferences and willingness to pay for outdoor recreation close to home (≤100 km away from home and ≤24 hours stay at a recreation site) using the contingent valuation method. The data originated from a mail survey that involved Swedish residents who were randomly selected from a national register. An ordinary least squares regression model was used to account for factors influencing willingness to pay. The results showed that approximately 50% of the respondents used nature areas close to their home for recreation and their average frequency of visits to these areas was 74 times annually. Areas dominated by forests were the most preferred, followed by water. The respondents were willing to pay approximately 7200 SEK (US$1080) annually. Their willingness to pay was influenced by factors such as type of nature area, distance to and time spent at the recreation site and income. The results provide one input to the land use planning process by considering the demand for nature-based outdoor recreation close to home.

Analyzing the mediators between nature-based outdoor recreation and emotional well-being

The evidence concerning the relative importance of physical activity, restorative experiences, and social interaction as mediators between exposure to nature and well-being has been inconsistent. We investigated whether there is a relationship between the average time used for nature-based recreation and emotional well-being and whether it is mediated through restorative experiences, social company and the perceived duration of the most recent nature-based recreation visit.A sample of 3060 Finnish people (38.3% response rate) aged 15–74 years participated in a survey using an internet and a mail questionnaire.Multiple mediation analysis using bootstrapping revealed an association between the self-reported participation in nature-based recreation and emotional well-being through restorative experiences when adjusting for age, gender, household income, the level of leisure time physical activity, and the frequency of active transportation. The amount of social company or the duration of the most recent nature-based recreation visit did not mediate the association between the average time spent on nature-based recreation and emotional well-being.The result accords with the evidence of the restorative and well-being effects of nature exposure but more evidence of causality and studies comparing different mediators in different population groups are needed.

Establishing reliability and construct validity for an instrument to measure environmental connectedness

The purpose of this preliminary study is to establish a reliable and valid measure of environmental connectedness (EC) to allow for further exploration of the Swedish Outdoor Recreation in Change national survey data. The Nordic concept of friluftsliv (nature-based outdoor recreation) and the environmental psychology concept of EC are explored to provide a foundation for the research. Reliability and construct validity testing on items from the Outdoor Recreation in Change survey have been tested and have demonstrated both reliability and construct validity. A reliable and construct valid measure of EC will facilitate research into the possible relationships between EC, nature-based outdoor recreation, and environmental behavior. A better understanding of these relationships may serve to further understanding of the human relationship with nature.

Nordic in nature: friluftsliv and environmental connectedness

This study explored the question of whether a relationship exists between the Nordic cultural idea of friluftsliv and the psychological construct of environmental connectedness (EC). This quantitative study employed a correlational design with existing data from the Swedish Outdoor Recreation in Change national survey. Results indicate that there is a significant and meaningful relationship between friluftsliv, operationally defined as nature-based outdoor recreation participation, and EC even when controlling for other predictor variables. In addition, research findings indicate that age group moderates this relationship with one group exception. It was also found that activity participation by respondents shows a correlation with both EC and age group. Implications of this study support a cultural understanding of nature-based outdoor recreation and an awareness of the important role of access to nature as an essential component of nature-based outdoor recreation. Age group differences supported a variety of implications and recommendations for future research. A consideration of how the results may have implications for environmental education and sustainability efforts were explored.

Modeling Daily Outdoor Recreation Participation and Time-Use as a Two-Stage Choice Process: A Finnish Example

This study examines the determinants of daily participation and time-use in nature-based outdoor recreation among the Finnish population, comparing frequently used modeling methods. Using an original time diary dataset, results show that daily participation decision is mainly influenced by age, dog ownership, potential unemployment and timing of the day (weekend vs. weekday, summer vs. autumn), whereas the main determinants for the daily time-use are age, timing of the day, gender and province. Results indicate that a simple two-part model (probit and OLS) is an appropriate approach for modeling the daily decision process concerning nature-based recreation behavior.

Research Article: Acculturation via Nature-Based Outdoor Recreation: A Comparison of Mexican and Chinese Ethnic Groups in the United States

This research considers acculturation by Mexican and Chinese groups in the United States and how participation in five nature-based outdoor recreation activities may be an indicator of acculturation to American society. We argue that the greater incidence of professional human capital among Chinese immigrants helps this group acculturate more quickly than Mexicans, who are more likely to be labor immigrants and that as a result, Chinese immigrants will be more likely than Mexican immigrants to participate in nature-based outdoor recreation activities. We also posit that US-born Chinese have a greater likelihood of participation compared to US-born Mexicans. Results show Chinese immigrant participation is distinguished only slightly from Mexican immigrant participation; no differences were found between US-born Chinese and US-born Mexicans. Within-group comparisons show immigrant Chinese participation to be more aligned with US-born Chinese participation than immigrant Mexican participation to US-born Mexican participation. Results from this study are intended to help raise awareness among environmental professionals of the different ways nature may be perceived by various cultural groups and also to alert managers of the important role natural resources can play in acculturating immigrants to US society.

Ethnic Variation in Environmental Belief and Behavior

We use national-level data to test a modified version of Stern, Dietz, & Guagnano’s causal model of environmental belief and behavior. We focus mainly on ethnic variation in environmental belief, as measured by the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP), and ethnic variation for four environmental behaviors: environmental reading, household recycling, environmental group joining, and participation in nature-based outdoor recreation. Blacks and foreign-born Latinos were less likely than Whites to score higher on the NEP. Any behavioral differences between Whites and the respective minority groups were expected to diminish with the inclusion of the NEP as an intervening variable in the model between ethnicity and behavior. However, ethnic differences remained stable and strong even when environmental belief was added. Overall, Asian American and U.S.-born Latino environmentalism was most similar to Whites. African American concern and behavior was least similar to White environmentalism. Gender, age, and liberal political orientation were also consistent explicators for both environmental concern and behavior.