Bias and precision of crowdsourced recreational activity data from Strava

Venter, Zander S.; Gundersen, Vegard; Scott, Stanley; Barton, David N.

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2023.104686

Cited by 17 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Lower correlations near populations centers were generally more pronounced for counter and Strava Metro companions for all recreation activities and pedestrians than bikers. This finding contrasts previous research demonstrating high correlations of Strava Metro and counters across space (Venter et al, 2023). A possible explanation for the trend we observed may be that the Strava Metro data does not represent the total recreation population or volume of recreationists in the study area, particularly near population centers and during the summer.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Advancements in monitoring: a comparison of traditional and application-based tools for measuring outdoor recreation

Capdevila,

McLellan,

Loosen

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Outdoor recreation has experienced a boom in recent years. While outdoor recreation provides wide-ranging benefits to human well-being and is an important feature of many protected and non-protected areas, there are growing concerns about the sustainability of recreation with the increased pressures placed on ecological systems and visitor experiences. These concerns emphasize the need for managers to access accurate and timely recreation data at scales that match the growing recreation footprint. Here, we compare spatial and temporal patterns of winter and summer recreation use using traditional and application-based tools across the Columbia and Canadian Rocky Mountains of western Canada. We demonstrate how recreation use can be estimated using traditional and application-based tools, although their accuracy and utility varies across space, season and activity type. Cameras and counters captured similar broad-scale patterns in count estimates of pedestrians and all recreation activities. Application-based data provided detailed spatiotemporal information on recreation use, but datasets were biased towards specific recreation types and did not represent the full recreation population. For instance, Strava Metro data was more suited for capturing broad-scale spatial patterns in biking than pedestrian recreation. Traditional tools including aerial surveys and participatory mapping captured coarser information on the intensity and extent of recreation, with the former tool capturing areas with low recreation intensity and the latter tool suited for capturing recreation information across large spatial and temporal scales. Application-based data should be supplemented with data from traditional tools including cameras or trail counters to identify biases in data and fill in data gaps. We provide a comparison of each tool for measuring recreation use, highlight each tools' strengths and limitations, and suggest how to use these tools to address real-world monitoring and management scenarios. Our research contributes towards a better understanding of what tools are available to measure recreation and can help direct managers in selecting which tool, or combinations of tools, to use that can expand the rigor and scope of recreation research. This information can support decision-making and lead to the protection of ecological systems while allowing for high-quality recreation experiences.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Advancements in monitoring: a comparison of traditional and application-based tools for measuring outdoor recreation

Capdevila,

McLellan,

Loosen

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…To check for the reliability of these two categories in the field, we compared the daily attendance of hikers (number of hikers recorded on the trail) between 0000 hours UTC and 2359 hours UTC and the hour of first arrival for both temporal disturbance levels using an eco-counter (PYRO sensor Eco-Compteur, www.eco-compteur.com; 90 cm above ground) located on Armenaz trail (45°37'18.60" N, 6°13'2.53" E) and present during two consecutive summers Potential spatial exposure to hikers' disturbance was evaluated within each female chamois home range using attendance rates of the trails extracted from Strava Global Heatmap (Strava, 2022;www.strava.com, download date: 2022/03/09, data from the two previous years; see also Courbin et al, 2022 for a similar approach on this study site). Strava heatmap provides a value ranging from 0 for no attendance to 255 for the highest attendance for each pixel (pixel size = 25 m x 25 m) and is a good proxy of relative human attendance (Supporting Information 3; Thorsen et al, 2022;Venter, Gundersen, Scott & Barton, 2023).…”

Section: Estimation Of Variables Of Interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the NGHRB, the lowest value recorded for a trail pixel was 51 and the highest was 255. The main advantage of Strava consists in its high precision and large coverage to capture spatial and temporal variation in recreational activities, although Strava users only represent a low proportion and a nonrandom sample of the recreational population (Venter, Gundersen, Scott & Barton, 2023).…”

Section: Complementary Analyses Of the Effect Of Temperature And Hike...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Too hot or too disturbed? Temperatures more than hikers affect circadian activity of females in northern chamois

Thel

Garel

Marchand

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Though non–lethal, recreational activities often result in a spatial and/or temporal shift of activity in a large range of species because they are perceived as a risk. With the concurrent development of outdoors activities and the increase of temperatures due to climate change in mountainous ecosystems, mountain species face an increasing pressure in terms of managing their activity pattern to both limit risk exposure and reduce thermal stress. In this context, we investigated how female northern chamois adjust their summer circadian activity to spatio–temporal variations of both temperature and hikers disturbance. We found that chamois behaviour was more affected by high temperatures than by hikers disturbance. During the hottest days, they shifted their activity peak earlier in the morning (50 minutes earlier; and to a lesser extent, later in the evening), and were more active at night (+ 21.5% approx.) than during daytime (− 10.10% approx.). Their global daily activity was higher (+ 4.54% approx.) during the hottest than coldest days owing to a significant increase of activity level during the activity peaks. Conversely, hikers disturbance had almost no effect on activity peaks of chamois most likely due to a temporal mismatch with hikers arrival and departure. Spatial and temporal disturbance had also a weak effect on chamois activity level, except when considered together and during the hottest days (i.e. the most disturbed conditions) exacerbating the temporal report of activity at night those days. Low tolerance of chamois to hikers presence might have led to the pattern reported with a similar response whatever the intensity of encounter risk. These results might also suggest that behavioural changes buffering animals from high temperature (relocation into refuge areas) and/or from hikers presence (moving away temporarily from trails) allow them to marginally modify their activity pattern. In the context of ongoing socio–environmental changes, these findings stress the importance of conserving habitats providing both shelter against summer heat and human disturbance to mitigate their potential detrimental consequences.

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“…In fact, Venter and colleagues found an increase in outdoor recreation activity by approximately 300 % during the pandemic lockdown in urban areas of Norway (1,2). However, these studies were restricted to Oslo, the capital of Norway, and relied on crowdsourced mobility data from the Strava tness app, which is biased towards middle-aged, socioeconomically advantaged and physically active population groups (16).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased nationwide use of greenspace in Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ulset

Venter

Kozák

et al. 2023

Preprint

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In recent years, there has been growing concern about the decline in human greenspace use and nature-based recreation in Western countries. While some evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic led to increased recreational mobility in urban greenspaces, it is unclear whether the pandemic led to nationwide changes in greenspace use in both densely and less densely populated neighborhoods, and whether social inequalities in greenspace use were reinforced or attenuated. To address these questions, we used daily nationwide aggregated mobility data from more than 2 million cell phone subscribers in 14,331 geographical grids across Norway to examine potential changes in mobility to greenspaces measured by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) during the pandemic, while controlling for weather conditions, holidays, and neighborhood sociodemographic characteristics. Results from linear mixed model analyses showed a 9.4% increase in recreational dwells in the greenest spaces during the pandemic. Notably, this increase was most prominent in neighborhoods of low socioeconomic status and was observed in both high and low population density neighborhoods, although the increase was somewhat stronger in neighborhoods with low population density. Our study findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has played a role in increasing nationwide greenspace use in Norway and potentially narrowing the gap of green inequality, highlighting the importance of preserving and promoting green spaces as a public health resource, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

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Bias and precision of crowdsourced recreational activity data from Strava

Cited by 17 publications

References 29 publications

Advancements in monitoring: a comparison of traditional and application-based tools for measuring outdoor recreation

Advancements in monitoring: a comparison of traditional and application-based tools for measuring outdoor recreation

Too hot or too disturbed? Temperatures more than hikers affect circadian activity of females in northern chamois

Increased nationwide use of greenspace in Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic

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