Estimating trail use and visitor spatial distribution using mobile device data: An example from the nature reserve of orange county, California USA

Monitoring visitor use in parks and protected areas (PPAs) provides essential information for managers of PPAs to evaluate aspects the experience balance ecological disturbance that creates. Traditional methods quantifying visitation spatial are resource intensive thus conducted infrequently or at cost-effective intervals which may fail capture dynamic nature modern trends. This paper an addition a growing literature using mobile-device data quantify density urban-proximate Orange County, California, USA analysis platform Streetlight, Inc. The results our compared favorably with well-established automatic trail counting GPS-based monitoring methods, illustrate several advantages mobile device inform management PPAs. Mobile provide reliable estimates can augment compliment existing social PPA planning.