Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
city environments, a feature constantly reiterated in urban recreation and summarised by
S.Williams (1995:35) thus: The net effect of car ownership is that participation rates in
sports and outdoor recreations are significantly higher in households with access to a car.'
In the case of Loch Lomond, the pressure has come from another form of transport:
recreational boating (see Bisset et al. 2000; Dickinson 2000). Recreational boat pressure,
as in the case of The
Plate 4.1:
White Cliffs of Dover, Kent.
How much of this footpath erosion is
due to recreational versus tourist use?
Broads in East Anglia (see Page 1999), has also posed concerns in terms of
environmental pollution (Bannan et al. 2000). This concern has been heightened by the
designation of the area as part of Scotland's first national park—the Loch Lomond and
Trossachs National Park (see Page and Dowling 2001). For resource managers, much of
the concern is with the use and management of individual sites, where specific tools such
as site closure, rejuvenation, reconfiguring visitor flows on sites and discriminatory
measures such as placing obstacles are used. In this respect, vehicles such as the private
car have been prohibited or closely controlled to minimise impacts. At a practical level,
recreation resource management involves maintaining and enhancing sites and the
geographer has a valid role to play in understanding visitor behaviour, usage patterns,
potential conflicts and spatial measures which can harmonise multiple use. This provides
fundamental information to feed into the management and planning process.
CARRYING CAPACITY
Carrying capacity is one of the most complex and confusing concepts which faces the
geographer in seeking to understand recreation sites and their ability to support a certain
level of usage (Coccossis 2004). In many early applications of the concept, it was viewed
as a management tool to protect sites and resources from excessive use, while also
seeking to balance usage with recreational enjoyment for participants (Wagar 1964;
Stankey 1973; Graefe et al. 1984a, 1984b; Shelby and Heberlein 1984, 1986; Stankey and
McCool 1984). In many respects, it is a precursor of the much wider concept of
