A recreation visitor travel simulation model as aid to management planning

This chapter describes a simulation model for dispersed recreation areas. The model provides a means for experimenting with modifications of use or of area conditions to determine the effects on use patterns and encounters between visitor groups. Travel simulation models are common, but the requirements for the wilderness model were quite different. All simulation models are simplified abstractions of complex, real-world processes. The simulator provides detailed output information for each individual simulation of a particular use situation or scenario. The use of computer-based simulation modeling in outdoor recreation management planning may arouse fears of depersonalization. Simulation results were compared with data from the user surveys as one check on model validity, both for use patterns and encounters. In the Desolation, encounters were, for a variety of reasons, somewhat higher according to the model than according to visitor reports.