Social carrying capacity and user satisfaction: An experiential function

Social carrying capacity was explored through the hypothesis that forest users sought out areas based upon the satisfying experience those areas offered. Relative area density was held to be a discriminating factor which mitigated the experience. Further, it was held that experiences and preferences could be predicted and these predictions would compare favorably to actual user behavior.

Six hundred sixty responses were analyzed in two 3 × 2 factorial multiple analyses of variance (MANOVA). The first MANOVA utilized a three level observed use density factor with the second factor being a day and overnight visitor breakdown. The second MANOVA reclassified the density zone factor into a three level predicted density factor based on an experiential preference regression model.

Responses on 12 attitudinal statements were collected with polar extremes representing a user's primitive bias to outdoor comfort bias.

The density zone factor in both analyses proved an effective method of discriminating between user's experience preferences. If a user's satisfaction is related to optimizing one's experience preferences, then understanding the relationship between area selection and experience opportunity would be important in determining recreational demand and subsequent social carrying capacity.

The information in this paper was collected during a project conducted at the University of Maryland, Agricultural Experiment Station, Contribution Number 5443 to Project MD‐T‐22, Scientific Article Number A2420.

Keywords:

• recreation demand
• forest recreation
• carrying capacity
• experience preferences
• predictive modeling
• user satisfaction
• recreation area management