Air quality and the visitor experience in parks and protected areas

Abstract

Air pollution is one of the greatest environmental health risks facing people worldwide. The transboundary nature of air pollution may place park and protected area (PPA) resources, as well as visitors, at risk of exposure to the same harmful pollutants that plague urban populations. Despite our knowledge of the various impacts of air pollution on endemic species, ecosystem functions, and human health, there exists a gap in our understanding of the affective, behavioral, and cognitive role of air pollution in the visitor experience in PPAs. We reduced this deficit by conducting a scoping review of existing empirical social science literature focused on the social and psychological effects of degraded air quality in and around PPAs. Using a systematic scoping process, we assessed peer-reviewed, empirical social science articles (n = 458), for evidence of human dimensions of air quality scholarship in International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) protected area sites. Results suggest a relative dearth of peer-reviewed social science scholarship explicitly focused on the visitor experience of air quality in PPAs worldwide. Descriptive analyses illustrate a consolidation of scholarship in specific publications, as well as geographic concentration of scholarship in North American protected areas and IUCN Category II (National Parks). Subsequent inductive analyses yielded five emergent themes—ecosystem services, visitor impacts, transit, measurement of behavior, and variable importance—evident in human dimensions of air quality literature, as well as variety of implications for future human dimensions of air quality scholarship and PPA management.

摘要

空气污染是全世界人民面临的最大的环境健康风险之一。空气污染的跨界性质可能使公园和保护区(PPA)资源以及游客如城市居民一样遭受同样有害污染物的困扰。尽管我们知道空气污染对当地物种、生态系统功能和人类健康的各种影响, 但我们对空气污染对公园与保护区游客体验的情感、行为和认知影响的了解尚有差距。我们对现有的实证社会科学文献进行了梳理以缩短这种差距, 重点是游客在公园与保护区内外空气质量下降的社会心理影响。通过系统的梳理文献, 我们评估了458篇经过同行评议的、实证性的社会科学的文章, 以证实国际自然保护联盟(IUCN)保护区空气质量研究的人文因素。结果表明, 全球范围明确关注公园与保护区空气质量对游客体验影响的同行评议社会科学研究相对缺乏。描述分析表明, 这方面的研究在某些出版物较为突出, 研究的地理范围集中在北美保护区和自然保护联盟第二类地区(国家公园)。随后的归纳分析呈现出五个主题：生态系统服务、游客影响、交通、行为测量和变量重要性——在空气质量文献的人类因素中很明显, 以及对未来空气质量研究和公园保护区管理的人类因素的各种启示。

Keywords:

• Air quality
• air pollution
• parks and protected areas
• visitor experience
• national parks
• ecotourism
• ecosystem services

关键词:

• 空气质量
• 空气污染
• 公园与保护区
• 游客体验
• 国家公园
• 生态旅游
• 生态系统服务

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Chris Zajchowski is an assistant professor of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Studies at Old Dominion University. His interdisciplinary research explores human dimensions of air quality in parks and protected areas, as well as decision-making in diverse outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism contexts.

Matthew Brownlee is an assistant professor of Parks and Conservation Area Management at Clemson University. Dr. Brownlee’s applied research helps park and protected area professionals manage visitor experiences, while evaluating the reciprocal linkages in complex social-ecological systems.

Jeff Rose is an assistant professor in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism and affiliate faculty with the Global Change and Sustainability Center at the University of Utah. Jeff’s research agenda explores productions of social and environmental (in)justice through the interlocking systemic inequities associated with class, race, political economy, and relationships to nonhuman nature.

Notes

1 Class 1 areas refer to U.S. protected areas that receive the highest level of air quality protections as stipulated under Section 162(a) of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977. All National Parks larger than 6,000 acres and all Wilderness larger than 5,000 acres, which existed on August 7, 1977, were granted Class I status. All Wilderness areas designated after 1977 are considered Class II areas, which designates a lower level of protection where moderate increases of new pollution. National Wildlife Refuges larger than 10,000 acres may hold Class I or II designation.