Visitors' behavior in national parks can be influenced by seasonal variations in climate and preferred activities. Seasonality can produce different space consumption patterns, and impact visitor experience and natural resource use. The purpose of this study was to explore the seasonal spatial patterns of visitors' activities using a mobile exercise application within the context of Seoraksan National Park in South Korea. A dataset composed of 5142 starting and ending points of 2639 activities (hiking and walking) created by 1206 mobile exercise application users (January-December 2015) were collected from a leading mobile exercise application operator. GIS-based spatial analytical techniques were used to analyze the spatial patterns of activity points across seasons and days (weekdays/weekends). Results indicated considerable seasonal and daily variations in activity distribution and hot spots (i.e., locations of potential congestion or crowding). The findings enable park managers to mitigate negative impacts to natural resources as well as enhance visitors' experiences. Also, it allows potential visitors to decide when to visit certain sites via mobile application to ensure optimal conditions. Furthermore, the GPS-based exercise mobile application can be used as a new methodological approach to understand spatio-temporal patterns of visitors' behavior within national parks and other natural protected areas.
Previous research on beach access typically uses socioeconomic variables such as race/ethnicity and different levels of wealth to identify marginalized groups. Such an additive approach, however, fails to consider the inter-categorical intersectionality between variables when defining marginalized groups. Moreover, there is little research that assesses the spatial variability of intersectional groups in relation to public beach access. This study addressed these gaps by empirically examining the spatially heterogeneous inter-categorical intersectionality of race/ethnicity and poverty in terms of public beach access. A geographically weighted regression was employed via a case study of 784 census tracts in the Metro Detroit. The results showed that economically marginalized white neighborhoods, overall, were more accessible to public beaches than economically marginalized African American and Asian neighborhoods.Furthermore, there exists spatially heterogeneous (in)equitable access to public beaches depending on the type of intersectional composition of the neighborhood. These findings are useful for beach managers to allocate resources to neighborhoods in need of more access to public beaches.
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