Outdoor recreation monitoring in coastal and marine areas – an overview of Nordic experiences and knowledge

Abstract

This paper involves a collection and communication of important knowledge about and experiences with outdoor recreation monitoring in Nordic coastal and marine areas. This is a topic that so far has received little attention, especially among researchers and practitioners working with outdoor recreation monitoring in Nordic coastal and marine areas, who are in need of knowledge on the topic in order to advance monitoring activities and procedures. To remedy this situation, the purpose of this paper is to provide a knowledge base by listing and describing central literature contributions with important insight into outdoor recreation monitoring in Nordic coastal and marine areas. More specifically, this includes information about: (a) where important knowledge about outdoor recreation monitoring in Nordic coastal and marine areas can be found, (b) who the main contributors are and (c) what monitoring knowledge that has been reported so far. The paper also examines what tasks lie ahead for researchers and area managers in order to improve knowledge about outdoor recreation monitoring in Nordic coastal and marine areas. The paper is a central contribution and addition to manuals on outdoor recreation monitoring that are currently available in the Nordic countries.

Keywords:

• Outdoor recreation monitoring
• visitor monitoring
• coastal and marine areas
• literature study
• Nordic countries

Acknowledgements

This study is part of the Graduate School in Marine Environmental Research at Gothenburg University. Special gratitude goes to the participants at the ‘Nordic Workshop on Monitoring and Managing Outdoor recreation in Coastal and Marine Areas’ that took place in Gothenburg 02 December 2014, where some of the literature contributions featured in this paper were presented.