1,720,963 research outputs found
Identification of key measures to promote and enhance cycling for visiting National Parks: A case study of Peak District National Park, England
No full textIncreasing pressure of cars towards National Parks is alarming for both nature and tourists. This research identifies the potential measures that can promote and enhance cycling within and around National Parks. The methodological approach includes 1) a literature review to identify measures sucessfuly implemented in the past in different case studies, 2) development of a questionnaire based on these measures, for inquiry of experts involved in the planning process of the case study, Peak District National Park (PDNP), England and 3) use of Kendall's W coefficient of concordance to determine the consensus among experts, about the rank and order of these potentional measures. The experts are most in favor of a flexible entry fee based on the transport mode of the visitor, a mobility app as a route planner, and infrastructural development. The Kendall's W shows a varying agreement among experts from moderate to strong for different categories of measures. Management implications • The research identifies the need to consider cycling as an essential mode of mobility from the local and visitors' perspective. Cycling is an important, healthy activity that helps people to reach various destinations. • The research highlights important measures that can help managers to convince visitors to use a bicycle instead of another mode. • The research findings provide guidance and a framework to promote and enhance the concept of cycling for managers involved in the planning/policy-making of visitors' mobility within and around a national park. • Managers should divert their focus towards the promotion of active mobility. They should understand that promoting cycling tourism will help them to overcome the dominance by cars. • The research indicates practical steps in order to guide managers in the implementation of the proposed measures.The authors would like to thank a couple of researchers from the University of Derby, Buxton. First of all, a lot of thanks to Dr. Peter Wiltshier and Dr. Iride Azara, senior lecturer in tourism, for providing a platform to collect data and organizing interviews with concerned officials. The author would especially like to pay gratitude to Emma Pope, Ph.D. student, University of Derby, for her coordination during the data collection process. Lastly, a bundle of thanks to Michael Reardon, senior transport officer (DCC), for providing access to relevant data. The research work is part of doctoral research. The doctoral research is funded by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, Pakistan. The author would also like to thank the doctoral schools of
Hasselt University for the provision of a mobility grant
Cycling as a means to improve the health and Wellbeing of both locals and visitors of national parks
No full textThe cause of numerous illnesses are obesity, anxiety, and hypertension. Physical activity reduces the higher risks of factors associated with various cardiovascular diseases. Cycling is a prominent type of physical activity. Locals, as well as visitors, can perform cycling. It is important to motivate locals and visitors coming to National Parks to reduce car usage and enhance bike usage; this can be achieved by highlighting the associated health benefits and reduced risk of diseases. Past research has identified many methods to promote cycling usage by highlighting its advantages, such as reducing the effect of multiple diseases e.g. all-cause mortality, cancer mortality, cardiovascular diseases, and obesity morbidity. This research, via literature review, identifies the health and wellbeing benefits. Additionally, it proposes a few strategies (healthy streets, kilometre allowances, and cycle superhighways), along with an implementation approach, to promote cycling within and around National Parks
Facilitating hikers’ mobility in protected areas through smartphone app: a case of the Hoge Kempen National Park, Belgium
No full textVisitor mobility in protected areas is often a challenge as manual map reading and finding a route consume the time. This paper presents a digital tool that provides valuable information for both the visitors and the managers of protected areas. The app provides assistance to users to generate, access, and record hiking routes within the protected area. A route planner was created to generate user-specific alternative routes taking into account the user's preferences in terms of distance, preferred landscape, level of accessibility, etc. The app also provides the users with basic information on the park, including captivating points, typical flora, and fauna. Moreover, visitors and park management can communicate with each other through exchanging messages and suggestions. The pilot validation test performed with 20 participants and real-time test from 68 park visitors revealed that all the functionality of the app is in order and the app enhances the mobility experience of the user within Hoge Kempen National Park. Furthermore, regular use of the app from users will generate rich data that is valuable for visitor management purposes, for example, the number of trips per day, the average duration of visits and popular segments.Shaker, M (reprint author), niv Hasselt, Transportat Res Inst IMOB, Agoralaan, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium.
[email protected]
Impact of Transport Network Changes on Tourism in Protected Areas: A Case Study of Ayubia National Park, Pakistan
No full textThe inflow caused by tourists in peak seasons exerts an uncontrollable pressure on the existing infrastructure. The Ayubia National Park in Pakistan
faces traffic delays and capacity restraints on the connecting roads in peak
season. The study focuses on the formulation of critical strategies by deploying amendments in the transport network. The methodology contains three
parts: 1) a questionnaire was designed to inquire about several variables from
the visitors; 2) the second part was traffic count data collection and analysis.
Based on the response collected, the impact of multiple strategies on the network was analyzed using TransCad; 3) in the third part, the results obtained
were shared with experts to gain their valuable opinions. It was observed that
the time of the day based access restriction to heavy vehicles could lead to
dropping the Volume to capacity ratio from 1.7 to 1.2. However, The experts
were also of the view that network changes can enhance and improve the visitors’ experience.Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the National Transport research center (NTRC), Pakistan for providing the traffic counts for the connecting areas to Ayubia National Park. We also thank the experts of different departments, e.g., NHA, NTRC, PTDC, GDA, and Planning Commission, for their valuable opinion towards the various elements of research. The authors also like to thank the support received from researchers affiliated with the National University of Sciences & Technology, National Defense University Islamabd and Hasselt University,
especially Muhammad Qadeer, Bilal Latif and Bruno Kochan respectively.
Funding
The research work is part of doctoral research. The doctoral research is funded by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, Pakistan
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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