Recreational Benefits Research Articles

Overview of FES-Assisted Cycling Approaches and Their Benefits on Functional Rehabilitation and Muscle Atrophy.

Central nervous system diseases include brain or spinal cord impairments and may result in movement disorders almost always manifested by paralyzed muscles with preserved innervations and therefore susceptible to be activated by electrical stimulation. Functional electrical stimulation (FES)-assisted cycling is an approach mainly used for rehabilitation purposes contributing, among other effects, to restore muscle trophism. FES-assisted cycling has also been adapted for mobile devices adding a leisure and recreational benefit to the physical training. In October 2016, our teams (Freewheels and EMA-trike) took part in FES-bike discipline at the Cybathlon competition, presenting technologies that allow pilots with spinal cord injury to use their paralyzed lower limb muscles to propel a tricycle. Among the many benefits observed and reported in our study cases for the pilots during preparation period, we achieved a muscle remodeling in response to FES-assisted cycling that is discussed in this chapter. Then, we have organized some sections to explore how FES-assisted cycling could contribute to functional rehabilitation by means of changes in the skeletal muscle disuse atrophy.

Cost benefit analysis of recreational public park (A Case of Tikapur Banglaw Park)

This paper is based on the Cost Benefit Analysis study of Tikapur Banglaw Park (TBP) of Tikapur Municipality in Kailali district. The main objective of this study is to estimate the recreational benefits of TBP, calculation of consumers' surplus per visitor per trip of individual visitors and calculation of benefit cost ratio of the Park. The Individual Travel Cost Method (ITCM) has been employed to capture the non-market benefits of the Park. This study is based on the survey of 101 visitors of the Park during mid March to mid April 2016. The Poisson regression model has been used to estimate consumer surplus of the visitors. The study shows that visit rate of visitors of Park is inversely correlated with travel cost and age of the visitors and positively correlated with household income of the visitors. The mean consumer's surplus per visitor per trip is estimated to be about NPR 2475. The aggregated consumer surplus for the annual park visitors calculated to be NPR 351 million. The estimated opportunity cost of the Park in terms of agricultural production is about NPR 9.99 million per annum. The total benefit is NPR 355 million and total cost is NPR 130 million. The benefit cost ratio is 27.43. The study clearly finds that the Tikapur Banglaw Park generates significantly higher level of public welfare. Therefore, Tikapur Municipality should formulate timely project intervention to upgrade quality of TBP.

Integrating social media analysis and revealed preference methods to value the recreation services of ecologically engineered wetlands

Social media provide a wealth of behavioral data that can be used to investigate the provision of environmental services. In this study, the preferences revealed by photo-sharing social media users are analyzed through travel cost modeling to infer the monetary value of recreation in 115 man-made wetland ecosystems. Photographs’ metadata and other publicly available information are used to determine the frequency of recreational trips and the home location of visitors. The mean willingness to pay for access to 115 wetlands is found to range between $5.3 and $374 (2015 international $). The comparison of estimated recreational benefits with the capital, operation and maintenance costs of 74 wetlands reveals that such benefits are considerable and should be taken into account in the design and management of these systems. The approach demonstrates the potential for ecosystem service valuation techniques to incorporate the large amounts of behavioral data available from online resources.

Developing an indicator for the physical health benefits of recreation in woodlands

Woodlands provide a range of ecosystem services (ES), yet indicators largely focus on the more tangible and quantifiable ‘goods’ such as timber rather than the benefits from cultural ES such as recreation. Physical health ‘benefits’ from recreation can improve life chances and reduce the burden on public health budgets. Whilst woodland managers recognise that these types of cultural ES are important, they often need quantitative measures to demonstrate their value and justify resource allocation. We develop a quantitative indicator of the benefits from physical recreation in woodlands using on-site visitor survey data. For each woodland sampled, we calculate the energy expenditure realised from recreational activities undertaken by each individual visitor. These values are converted to Quality Adjusted Life Years (a measure of the health benefits that combine duration and quality of life) and economically assessed. We demonstrate that annual recreation values vary considerably between woodlands due to the range of facilities provided, activities undertaken, frequency of visits and proximity of population. Monetary estimates ranged from £6 to £8542 per person to £2581 to £70,832 per woodland. This new indicator has the potential to inform future woodland management and enable managers to consider a wider portfolio of ES.

Disaggregating ecosystem service values and priorities by wealth, age, and education

Ecosystem services support the livelihoods and wellbeing of millions of people in developing countries. However, the benefits from ecosystem services are rarely, if ever, distributed equally within communities. Little work has examined whether and how socio-economic characteristics (e.g. age, poverty, education) are related to how people value and prioritize ecosystem services. We interviewed 372 people connected to coral reef fisheries in 28 communities across four countries in the western Indian Ocean. Each fisher ranked the importance of nine ecosystem service benefits, and then rated which services they most desired an improvement in quantity or quality. We disaggregated their responses to see whether age, poverty, or years of formal schooling influence how fishers rank and prioritize coral reef ecosystem services. Overall, we found little empirical evidence of strong differences between groups. However, the wealthiest fishers did prioritize improvements in habitat ecosystem services and recreational benefits more than other fishers. Our findings emphasize that people directly dependent on coral reef fisheries for their livelihood hold mostly similar values and priorities for ecosystem services. However, poverty influences whether fishers prioritize improvements in supporting ecosystem services associated with environmental care, in this case habitat benefits. Making the differences and similarities between the importance of and priorities for ecosystem services explicit can help decision-makers to target and frame management to be more socially inclusive and equitable and therefore, more effective.

Constructed wetlands for water quality improvements: Benefit transfer analysis from Ohio

Water resources provide many benefits that generate value for residents and recreation users alike but run-off from agricultural and impervious surfaces can impair water quality, reducing any generated value. A possible solution to this problem is the construction of treatment wetlands to remove excessive nutrients from water bodies. This study uses environmental and economic data to approximate the costs of constructing and operating free surface water wetlands to remove phosphorus and estimates the amenity and recreational benefits of the resulting improvements in water quality for 24 lakes in Ohio. A ten percent improvement in water quality from a decrease in phosphorus loadings generates positive net benefits for all lakes in the sample with a lifetime cost benefit ratio of 2.92. The study also examines the potential use of constructed wetlands as the sole strategy to achieve a reduction goal for phosphorus loadings and find that the costs of doing so are prohibitive. Constructed wetlands can be a cost-effective component of a comprehensive strategy for small-scale nutrient reduction and water quality improvements for surface water bodies, but other treatment methods would be required to achieve any proposed targeted improvements.

On the road again: The barriers and benefits of automobility for people with disability

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (PWD) has been signed by over 160 nations to achieve greater social participation, with public and private transport clearly identified as an area to improve accessibility. Whilst the majority of scholarly work has focused on public transport needs, less research has examined the barriers or benefits of access to private modified vehicles for PWD. In this exploratory study, a Delphi technique with health experts, researchers, drivers and funding agencies developed an instrument to examine the barriers and benefits of access to private modified vehicles for PWD. An online survey was completed by 287 drivers and carers to report on barriers to private modified vehicles, whilst a sub-set of 190 drivers with access to a private modified vehicle reported on experientially derived benefits. A factor analytic approach identified how financial and informational barriers vary with respect to several characteristics including disability type and level of support needs. Factors relating to independence, social and recreational benefits are perceived as more valued experientially derived benefits relative to benefits relating to employability and ability to enjoy downtime. Benefits in the form of independence are greater among drivers and owners, those with an acquired condition, less complex mobility and everyday support needs, whilst little difference emerged in terms of the social and downtime benefits. The findings inform policy development and funding opportunities to provide insight and evidence into the barriers, but also benefits and variation in private transport needs among PWD.

Proposition of a Benefit Estimation Method for Quality Improvement in Multi-Destination Recreation Trips

This study proposes a recreation benefit estimation method for multi-destination trips when every visitor passes through a single gateway. Using the proposed method, the benefit of quality improvements in the nth site of a multi-destination trip can be measured by considering only the demand function of trips from the origin to the gateway. The demand function to the gateway, however, should take account of qualities in all the relevant sites. As a case study, we demonstrate the procedure and the usefulness of the proposed method by analyzing data of visits to Hong Kong and Macau. We compare the estimated benefit of this model with that of the approach proposed by Mendelsohn et al. (1992), yielding a ratio of 1.09. The empirical results demonstrate that the proposed model generates useful estimates and offers advantages over previous models in terms of convenience in data collection. Finally, we extend the model to incorporate multiple gateways.

Effects of water quality changes on the recreation benefits of swimming in Finland: Combined travel cost and contingent behavior model

Abstract Finland is a highly coastal country with a large archipelago area and numerous lakes. Consequently, these provide an essential environment for water-based outdoor recreation activities. To improve the information base for evaluating the welfare effects of policy instruments addressing water quality, such as the EU Water Framework Directive, this study examined the effects of changes in water quality on the recreation benefits, focusing on swimming trips in Finland. National recreation inventory data were used to provide information on welfare changes at the national level. The combined travel cost and contingent behavior approach revealed that the recreation value of a swimming trip in the current state was approximately 16 euros. The approach allowed assessment of the welfare effects of water quality changes beyond the observed levels, showing that a hypothetical decrease in water quality to a level at which the water visibility would be less than 1 m and abundant slime would exist decreased the value to 9 euros. Water quality improvement to a level at which the perceived water visibility would be over 2 m and no slime would exist increased the value per trip to 22 euros. In total, the overall annual value of all visits made for swimming in the case of water quality improvement increased the recreation benefits by 53–80%, while a deterioration in quality decreased the benefits by approximately 80%.

Benefits derived from recreation and sport leisure that motivate participation

Using the constraints-effects mitigation model, this study explored the benefits of recreation and sport leisure activities that motivate women’s participation. While there are numerous studies that have investigated factors that motivate women’s leisure participation and leisure constraints in Europe and the United States, there are less empirical studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa. A lack of comparable studies limits our understanding of leisure participation in Africa, but more importantly mandates further investigations within an African context. Applying a phenomenological qualitative approach, nineteen women were studied. The findings showed that Nigerian women are motivated to participate in recreation and sport leisure activities by health-related and social interaction benefits.Keywords: Recreation, Sport, Leisure, Activities, Women, Nigeria

Challenges and Solutions for Applying the Travel Cost Demand Model to Geographically Remote Visitor Destinations: A Case Study of Bear Viewing at Katmai National Park and Preserve

ABSTRACTRemote and unique destinations present difficulties when attempting to construct traditional travel cost models to value recreation demand. The biggest limitation comes from the lack of variation in the dependent variable, defined as the number of trips taken over a set time frame. There are various approaches that can be used for overcoming limitations of the traditional travel cost model in the context of remote destinations. This study applies an adaptation of the standard model to estimate recreation benefits of bear viewing at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, which represents a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many visitors. Results demonstrate that visitors to this park’s Brooks Camp area are willing to pay an average of US$287 per day of bear viewing. Implications of these findings for valuing recreation at other remote destinations are discussed.

Selective and traditional forest management options for black pine forests in Central Italy: effects on ecosystem services

Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) should be able to produce an optimal level of bundle of Ecosystem Services (ES), thus ensuring more resilient forest ecosystems also creating benefits for local population and human well-being. Yet, choosing between alternative forest management practices is not straightforward as it necessarily involves ES trade-offs. Forest management decisions have to reconcile the socio-economic and ecological contributions of forest ecosystems by fostering a synergistic relation between multiple ES while lowering ES trade-offs. The aim of the study is to analyze different forest management practices (selective and traditional thinning) in black pine peri-urban forest in Central Italy, by investigating their contribution in terms of provisioning (wood production), cultural (recreational benefits), regulating (climate change mitigation) ES. For each management option was performed: (1) the biophysical assessment of selected ES by using primary data and calculating indicators for wood production with special regard to biomass for energy use (living trees and deadwood volume harvested), recreational benefits (tourists’ preferences for each forest management practice), climate change mitigation (carbon sequestration in above-ground and below-ground biomass), and (2) the economic valuation of wood production, recreational benefits and climate change mitigation ES using direct and indirect methods (environmental evaluation techniques). The results show that the effects of the selective thinning on ES is higher that the effects of the traditional thinning. The economic value of the three ES provided by traditional and selective thinning are respectively: bioenergy production 154.2 € ha -1 yr -1 and 223.3 € ha -1 yr -1 ; recreational benefits 193.2 € ha -1 yr -1 and 231.9 € ha -1 yr -1 ; carbon sequestration 29.0 € ha -1 yr -1 and 36.2 € ha -1 yr -1 . The integrated (biophysical and economic) assessment of ES in addition to the trade-off analysis can provide multi-perspective insights for forest policy makers and can be included as a part of the local forest management plans.

Adapting the travel cost method to estimate changes in recreation benefits in the Hawkesbury–Nepean River

ABSTRACTThe travel cost method (TCM) has been widely used to estimate values of visits to recreational and heritage sites. However, its conventional use is limited to the estimation of visitors’ values given the current condition of the site. In this article, the TCM is combined with the contingent behaviour (CB) technique to allow the estimation of changes in values associated with a change in site condition. This approach provides marginal value estimates that are suited to inclusion in benefit–cost analysis. The context used to apply this conceptual development is the estimation of marginal benefits associated with improvements in the condition of the Hawkesbury–Nepean River system, an iconic waterway in NSW, Australia. Pollution, reduced flows downstream of dams and weirs, and water extraction have contributed to algal blooms and aquatic weed growth in the River. To address this decline in river health a new regime of environmental flow releases is under consideration. The increases in recreation values at six main recreation sites along the River that would result from environmental flows were estimated using the dual travel cost/CB approach. The marginal benefits were estimated to be within a range of $1.7 m to $6.6 m per annum.

Promising Practices for Making Recreation Programming Matter for People who Experience Mental Illness.

There is merit in understanding how recreation-oriented programs for adults living with mental illness address barriers to participation and how programming is structured to create safe and inclusive environments, resulting in programming that amplifies the benefits of recreation for mental well-being. Following an environmental scan of programs targeting adults living with mental illness in Canada, ten coordinators in community mental health settings were interviewed. Four themes were constructed to reflect characteristics deemed to be 'promising practices' related to recreation-oriented programming: (a) barriers and solutions to individual participation, (b) characteristics of welcoming and supportive environments,

A travel cost assessment of the demand for recreation in Swiss forests

This paper analyzes the demand for recreation in Swiss forests using the individual travel cost method. We apply a two-steps approach, i.e., a hurdle zero-truncated negative binomial model, that allows accounting for a large number of non-visitors caused by the off-site phone survey and over-dispersion. Given the national scale of the survey, we group forest zones to assess consumer surpluses and travel cost elasticities for relatively homogeneous forest types. We find that forest recreation activities are travel cost inelastic and show that recreation in Swiss forests provides large benefits to the population. The most populated area is associated with greater consumer surpluses, but the lack of recreational infrastructure may cause a lower recreational benefit in some zones. For these zones, recreational benefits may be lower than costs caused by maintenance. More efficient management would require either improving recreational infrastructure thus increasing benefits, or switching the forest status from recreational to biodiversity forest hence decreasing management costs.

A theoretical study on workplace recreation: suggestion on its applicability in tourism enterprises

In tourism, which is a labor-intensive sector, the fact that employees work under excessive stress and pressure can cause work exhaustion, job dissatisfaction and inefficient work. Tourism business managers have begun to care much more about the impact of workplace recreation on productivity in order to prevent all of this. Workplace recreation, when implemented by the managers, can contribute to job satisfaction and productivity by allowing the employee to spend leisure time more efficiently and productively by providing working time and leisure time balance. Therefore, the aim of this study is to carry out a theoretical examination on the workplace recreation and to present various suggestions to the sector managers in tourism for their applicability in tourism enterprises, as well as evaluating the benefits of business recreation to tourism businesses, employees and the economy of the country. For this purpose, efforts have been made to reveal the relationship between leisure time and work efficiency in this study and then evaluations and suggestions about the applicability of workplace recreation in tourism enterprises have been presented. This study presents a theoretical framework guiding future researches.

The Kladruby Games, the Paralympics, and the pre-history of disability sport

The place of Dr Ludwig Guttmann in the founding history of the Paralympic Games is universally acknowledged. Briefly stated, Guttmann is credited with the aspiration to improve the dismal prospects of postwar spinal injury patients, and the inspiration of using sports as rehabilitative practices. Given his initiation of the Stoke Mandeville Games in 1948 with a small-scale archery contest between two local teams, he was able to draw a ready parallel between his beginnings and the model of the London Olympic Games, and in a few short years the multi-disability Paralympic Games had been established. However, there was both an historical context and a co-history to these brief details – there are lessons from both time and place. We must not forget (or fail to acknowledge) some of the pre-history and parallel histories, which we should attempt to recover. This article presents an account of the development of the Kladruby Games in Czechoslovakia from 1948, which in 2017 celebrate their 100th edition, in order to bring to light some of the hidden history of disability sport. We might be led to speculate on how the Kladruby Games might have developed from these very promising beginnings, had Srdečný received earlier support from the authorities, and the impetus to consider Olympic connections. Such speculations we consider to be fruitless, given the very different conceptions of disability sport at work here. Srdečný’s continuing commitment was to seeing the Kladruby Games as an impetus to the rehabilitative and recreational benefits of sport, rather than the contradictions experienced by the Paralympics in balancing elite performance values with its other aims.

The benefits of improving urban lakes in mega cities: a revealed and stated preference approach applied to the Hussain Sagar in Hyderabad, India

AbstractIn this study, the author estimates the demand for improvements in the site quality of Hussain Sagar, a large lake in metropolitan Hyderabad, India. Using both revealed and stated preference approaches, it is estimated that the park provides recreational benefits of US$35 per person for on-site respondents and US$14 for off-site respondents per visit to the park. Given that over one million people visit the lake and its parks every year, based on different scenarios, the annual estimated amenity value of the lake ranges from INR1.76bn (US$29m) to INR3.48bn (US$58m). Thus it is recommended that park authorities double the access fee to the park from the current INR10 (US$0.16). With this increase, the government can potentially earn US$0.36–1.48m in revenues per year, which will make it possible to improve the quality of the lake and its surroundings.

Assessing recreational benefits as an economic indicator for an industrial harbour report card

Industrial harbours are a complex interface between environmental, economic and social systems. Trying to manage the social and economic needs of the community while maintaining the integrity of environmental ecosystems is complicated, as is the identification and evaluation of the various factors that underpin the drivers of economic, community and resource condition. An increasingly popular strategy to deal with the identification and evaluation challenges in complex human-environmental systems is to use a report card system which can be used as a summary assessment tool to monitor the health of aquatic ecosystems. To date though these have largely focused on environmental factors, and it is only very recently that attempts are being made to include social, cultural and economic indicators. There has been limited consensus in the selection of social and economic indicators applied in different aquatic report cards but as recreation is such an important activity, typically some measure of recreation benefit is included. However, there has been no commonality in the measures applied to assess its performance as an economic indicator.This paper is focused on the assessment of recreational benefits as an indicator of economic value in the report card for Gladstone Harbour in Queensland, Australia. It is the first aquatic health report card to include an assessment of the nonmarket value of recreation which makes it a more comprehensive indicator of economic value compared to other report cards based on measures of employment, participation or expenditure. There have now been three consecutive years of reporting (2014–2016) of the Gladstone Harbour report card, and the results indicate that the recreation index appears to be effective in monitoring changes over time.

Estimating Recreational Value of the Foy's Lake: An Application of Travel Cost Count Data Model for Truncated Zeros

Abstract. To estimate the annual recreational value provided by the Foy’s Lake, using the most applicable model for on-site data, is the main objective of this study. To adhere to the objective of this study, individual travel cost method (ITCM) has been applied and zero truncated poisson regression model has been found plausible among other models to estimate the consumer surplus. Based on the estimate, the consumer surplus or recreational benefits per trip per visitor can be recommended as BDT 5,875 or US $ 73.44 and counting the consumer surplus per trip per visitor, the annual recreational value (total consumer surplus) provided by the lake is found to be BDT 321 million or US $ 40.2 million. Keywords: Individual Travel Cost Method, Zero Truncated Poisson Regression Model, Endogenous Stratification, Consumer Surplus. JEL. C24, Q26, Q51.