Recreational Land Use Research Articles

Recreational Land Use Immunity: A Connecticut Experience

Recreational Land Use Immunity: A Connecticut Experience

Tourism development on the north Yucatan coast: Human response to shoreline erosion and hurricanes

The barrier coast of north Yucatan has been evolving into a beachfront recreational landscape since the introduction of passenger rail service between Merida and Progreso in 1881. Beginning in the 1950's, middle-class vacation home construction spread laterally outward from Progreso, and even distal fishing and salt-gathering villages became engulfed by a recreational landuse overlay. In spite of geomorphic evidence of marine transgression, such as dune scarps and washover fans, the focus of recreational urbanization has been the beachfront. And although attempts at retarding shore erosion have taken place since the 1960s, hazard perception has remained generally low until the late 1980s. When Hurricane Gilbert blew across the Yucatan peninsula in 1988, damage to beachfront structures, highways, boats, and salt ponds was extensive. The barrier environment exhibited extensive overwashing and breaching, especially in areas of human modification, and the lagoon ecosystem experienced considerable ecologic disruption. Because the north Yucatan coast is a locus of domestic tourism, and the thousands of uninsured summer homes are owned largely by members of Merida's middle class, reconstruction since Gilbert has been slow. Incipient trends of international tourism development have slowed since 1988.

Politics, Property Rights, and Cottage Development

This paper explores recreational land use planning issues, giving special attention to the applicability of benefit/cost analysis and the economics of property rights. The analysis suggests that the political process does not function as well as is often assumed, and an explanation is offered based on the public choice theory of government. An Alberta plan for its major water-based recreational resources is used to illustrate generalizations about recreational land use planning and the political process.

Forest Recreational Land-use and Zoological Gardens in a Developing Economy: The Case of Southern Nigeria

Forest Recreational Land-use and Zoological Gardens in a Developing Economy: The Case of Southern Nigeria

The paradox of parks: politics of recreational land use before and after the mass trespasses

This paper has been prompted by the growing interest in the mass trespasses of the 1930s and increasing current concens about public access to land for the purpose of recreation. It represents a preliminary attempt to place in context the issues of loss of access to non-agricultural land, the attempts to regain access, and the consequences of the resultant establishment of various national and countryside parks. Loss of access is discussed in terms of enclosure and changing fashions in hunting. The attempts to regain access are seen as a growing movement culminating in the mass trespasses. And the consequences are addressed with regard to the concessions that were necessary in order to achieve the national parks. Rather than challenging the rights of exclusive private ownership, as was the original intent of the access movement, the paradox of parks lies in the fact that they have served to confirm such rights.

The perception of dimensions of space and levels of infrastructure and its application in landscape planning

Three different examples of analysis of spatial and functional elements in the landscape are briefly described and compared. The three vary in location, scope and objective. The first is an American report concerning the setting up to a classification system for water-oriented landscapes. The other two are published and situated in The Netherlands. One of them deals with the concept of openness and enclosure in a rural landscape in which recreational land-use is planned. The other sets up guidelines for the planning of electric power lines in the (flat) Dutch landscape. The three share the notion that levels of dimension and/or function that are interrelated in a particular way result in aesthetic satisfaction. This notion is supported in general terms in literature on environmental perception. Attempts to “validate” the notion by means of design and planning studies are illustrated here. They result in proposals for a maximum allowable density of occupation in a recreational area and in criteria for the location and alignment of electric power lines.

Wall, Geoffrey, and John S. Marsh, eds. Recreational Land Use: Perspectives on its Evolution in Canada

Wall, Geoffrey, and John S. Marsh, eds. <i>Recreational Land Use: Perspectives on its Evolution in Canada</i>

Recreational Land Use: Perspectives on its Evolution in Canada, eds. Geoffrey Wall and John S. Marsh [Review

Recreational Land Use: Perspectives on its Evolution in Canada, eds. Geoffrey Wall and John S. Marsh [Review

Reviews/Comptes rendus

Book reviewed in this article: Recreational Land Use: Perspectives on Its Evolution in Canada, edited by Geoffrey Wall and John S. Marsh Tourism: Economic, Physical and Social Impacts, by Alister Mathieson and Geoffrey Wall The Rural Real Estate Market: Geographic Patterns of Structure and Change in an Urban Fringe Environment, by Chris Bryant Environmental Aesthetics: Essays in Interpretation, edited by Barry Sadler and Allen Carlson Historical Understanding in Geography: An Idealist Approach, by Leonard Guelke Period and Place: Research Methods in Historical Geography, edited by Alan R.H. Baker and Mark Billinge

Soils of the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Their Suitability for Recreational Development

Soils are a major component of most geographical environments, and their characteristics should be considered in planning and managing those environments. The process of evaluating soil for recreational land use is illustrated for the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This paper describes the major soils as classified by the U.S. soil taxonomy system; this system is particularly useful in evaluating broad soil groups for specific land uses. For each soil group, restrictive features and ratings for selected recreational land uses are listed; the specific uses selected are low buildings without basements, septic-tank absorption fields, camping areas, picnic areas, and paths and trails.

FEE FISHING AREAS IN ILLINOIS1

ABSTRACT: Fishing is a popular form of recreation in the state of Illinois. Despite seemingly endless varieties of fishing opportunities, limited public access, distant location of lakes with respect to population centers, chemical contaminants in some waters, and the desire for species not naturally found in Illinois have engendered an alternate form of recreational land use, the daily fee fishing area. A fee area is any privately controlled body of water or waters where a fee is charged for fishing. Such operations must Low licensed by the state of Illinois. Fee areas are almost entirely comprised of existing man‐made impoundments, particularly farm ponds. They are usually stocked on a put and take basis. The most common species utilized in Illinois are carp and channel catfish. Fee areas are concentrated in the southwestern part of the state and near major metropolitan centers. Even though the number of fee areas has declined during the past decade, the role of such operations remains important to the overall picture of fishing in Illinois.

Assessment and mapping of land erosion potential in mountainous recreational areas

The prediction of land erosion rates under different types of land use is difficult because of the large number of variables involved. This paper attempts to isolate the most important characteristics of land contributing to its crodibility, and then describes the geomorphological approach used to assess and map land erosion potential in the Kamberg area of the Drakensberg mountains, South Africa. Emphasis is placed on the fact that land erosion potential varies with land use type, and recreational land use only is considered. The terrain at Kamberg could be divided into four sections, each displaying a degree of internal homogeneity in land erosion potential, yet distinguishable from its neighbours through geomorphological and topographic characteristics. Inherent subjectivity in terrain evaluation techniques, and lack of threshold values for variables concerned constitute the main weaknesses of the method used, and because of this, such work should be undertaken only by an experienced field geomorphologist.

A Study of Conflict in Recreational Land Use: Snowmobiling vs. Ski-Touring. Timothy B. Knopp and John D. Tyger. Journal of Leisure Research, Vol. 5, No. 3, Summer 1973, pp. 6-17. National Recreation and Park Association, 1601 North Kent Street, Arlington, Virginia 22209. $2.50

A Study of Conflict in Recreational Land Use: Snowmobiling vs. Ski-Touring. Timothy B. Knopp and John D. Tyger. Journal of Leisure Research, Vol. 5, No. 3, Summer 1973, pp. 6-17. National Recreation and Park Association, 1601 North Kent Street, Arlington, Virginia 22209. $2.50

Roadside Air Pollution Hazards in Recreational Land Use Planning

Abstract Convincing evidence points to the deleterious effects of air pollution on the health of general populations. Increased morbidity and mortality rates from lung cancer, stomach cancer, emphysema, and other respiratory diseases have been noted for populations in highly polluted areas. Persons engaging in recreational activities near major concentrations of automobile traffic are probably subjecting themselves to particularly high levels of air pollution. The more vigorous the recreational activity the more hazardous may be the effect of the pollution. It is important that planners take these factors into account when making recreational land use decisions.

A Study of Conflict in Recreational Land Use: Snowmobiling vs. Ski-Touring

Conflicts over the use of public land for recreation may be more than the result of a simple effort to gain or retain territory. Fundamental differences in attitudes toward the environment and publ...

Costs of Outdoor Recreation Land-Use Controls

Costs of Outdoor Recreation Land-Use Controls

Recreational land use patterns within an American seaside resort

Urban areas whose dominant economic activities are those of providing an array of recreational services to tourists normally reflect this specialization in their land use patterns. Although precise statistical definition of the relative importance of recreational functions within an urban economy has certain inherent difficulties, some towns are so obviously dependent on tourism that they are universally recognized as resorts. In these towns, a characteristic urban morphology is apparent. Their unique physical qualities, so readily observed in the basic urban structure of resorts, may provide students of the science of tourism with insight into their function. Function and form, in tourism as in other urban activities, are, necessarily, closely interwined. ‘The landscape of a town, or if the word is accepted, the “townscape”, is worthy of far more geographical research than it now receives.’ The objective of this paper is the description of this interrelationship as observed in a representative American seaside resort, together with a brief historical interpretation of urban development in this resort.

Upwards from the Plateau

The development of the forester's leadership role in forest land management is compared to rising profile of land between a sea or lake shoreline and a range of mountains, the progression is upward but the rate of climb changes. No plateau is identified. Reference is made to forestry leadership in several fields of forest land management; administration, land use, planning, research, forest management, recreational land use and fish and wildlife management. It is noted that forest land management includes activities for which foresters were not academically trained and reference is made to the fact that non-foresters, e.g. biologists and geographers are giving leadership in forest land management and thus providing beneficial competition and stimulation. The most important leadership role in the future may relate to regional planning. The forestry profession is cautioned not to abdicate this field to those in other disciplines.

A note on the urban‐nonurban imbalance in American recreational research

“Seaside standards and culture patterns have now reached such stages of refinement that it is possible to judge a man's status, tastes, and income by the beach he attends…”. Some of the most intensive and highly specialized recreational land use exists along the ocean beaches of northeastern United States, providing a great range of social group appeal. In contrast to the essentially extensive recreational land use patterns of the rural, resource‐oriented parks and forests under Federal or state control, the development of these intermediate and user oriented recreational facilities, frequently resourced‐based, has been accomplished primarily through private enterprise operating in urban areas.

Watersheds and Recreational Land Use in the Pacific Northwest

This article discusses the municipal watershed areas in the Pacific Northwest that are coming under increasing pressure from government agencies and proponents of recreational interests who believe there is a need to utilize these areas for unrestricted access and recreational development. The article cites current federal government studies and statistical information regarding the recreational potential and utilization of the areas presently set aside and available for recreation. Topics covered include: Washington watersheds and recreation; disease transmission; misuse and overuse; treatment and costs; and, federal recommendations.