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• To promote perception of nature is the only
  truly creative part of recreational engineering.
  Leopold (1966)

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The Environmental Perceptionsof Whitewater
KayakersDissertation Proposal

• T. Jason Davis
• Ph.D. Candidate
• Clemson University

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Committee Members

• Dr. Rob Bixler (Chair)
• Dr. Fran McGuire
• Dr. Bill Norman
• Dr. Dewayne Moore

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Problem Statement

• Research that has been conducted describing
  outdoor recreationists (specifically risk
  recreationists) interaction with the natural
  environment is fragmented, usually involving only
  one component of the recreation experience. This
  research is an attempt to better understand
  whitewater kayakers, specifically their
  environmental perceptions utilizing widely used
  outdoor recreation measurements.

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Study Objectives

• Describe the differences in whitewater kayakers,
  based on demographics, experience use history
  (EUH), social group, trip motivations and river
  being kayaked
• Determine the environmental perceptions of
  whitewater kayakers based on trip motivations,
  social group, EUH and river being kayaked
• Determine if whitewater kayakers environmental
  perceptions can be utilized to categorize them
  into meaningful groups

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Study Objectives

• Construct a path model to determine the
  interrelationships of motivation, social group,
  river and EUH with environmental perception

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Justification

• 24.2 million whitewater recreationists, 12 of
  adult population (Lewis Cordell, 1995)
• Whitewater boating one of the fastest growing
  human-powered outdoor recreation sports
  (Presidents Commission on the Outdoors, 1987)
• 2.6 million kayakers (Cordell, 1999)
• Dramatic increase in kayaking due to increase in
  technology, diffusion of information and
  glamorization of high risk activities by the
  media

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Justification

• Potential resource damage due to increase in the
  number of kayakers
• Less than 1 percent of the river miles in the
  U.S. have whitewater rapids (Class II or better)
• Unique and valuable resource

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Definitions

• Whitewater Kayaker
• Kayakers
• Open boaters and whitewater rafters will not be
  sampled
• Whitewater
• Class II and above

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Kayak
Raft
Canoe
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Environmental PerceptionConceptual Model
Social Group
Motives
Environmental Perception
EUH
River
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Recreation Resource Management
Management
Resource User (recreator)
Environment Activity Setting
The actual physical environment and perceived
environment
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Outdoor Recreation ParticipationWilliams, 1985

• Three Components
• Activities
• Recreation activity (i.e. Whitewater kayaking)
• Settings
• Natural Environment (i.e. river)
• Companions
• Social Group (individual, two people, or group)

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Three Components of Outdoor Recreation
Activity
Setting
Companions
Kayaking
River (s)
Social Group
Physical Features
Social Milieu
Motivations
EUH
Environmental Perception
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Model of Landscape PerceptionZube, Sell, Taylor
Human
Landscape
Outcomes
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Human Component

• Past experience (EUH)-behavioral component
• Knowledge
• Socio-cultural context of individuals and groups
• Expectations values

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Landscape Component

• Individual elements (i.e. Rocks, trees, etc.)
• Landscapes as entities (i.e. River environments)
• Built and natural features

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Landscape Perception Paradigms

• The Expert Paradigm
• Involves evaluation of landscape quality by
  skilled and trained experts.
• The Psychophysical Paradigm
• Involves assessment through testing general
  public or selected populations evaluations of
  landscape aesthetic qualities or specific
  properties.

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Landscape Perception Paradigms

• The Cognitive Paradigm
• Involves a search for human meaning associated
  with landscape or landscape properties.
  Information is received by the human observer and
  in conjunction with past experience, future
  expectation, and sociocultural conditioning,
  lends meaning to landscape.
• The Experiential Paradigm
• Considers landscape values to be based on the
  experience of the human-landscape interaction,
  whereby both are shaping and being shaped by the
  interactive process.

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Zube, 1981 Model
Landscape Physical elements Locational
context Features Composition
Recreation Experience Expectations Experiences Mot
ivations Social context
Interaction Person-landscape Person-person-landsca
pe Person-group-landscape
Outcomes Information Satisfaction Stimulation Psyc
hological well being
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Social Groups

• A social group is composed of individuals who
  recognize themselves as part of that group and
  are recognized by others as part of that group
  (Cheek Burch, 1976)
• Social groups, be they composed of family
  members, peers, neighbors, friends, club
  associates, workmates, and so on, may be the
  overriding determinant of recreational choice
  (Bammel, 1992 p. 337)
• Most outdoor activities take place in group
  settings and involve different people at
  different times. (Heywood, 1987)

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Social Groups

• Being with people was the 4th most important
  reason why people participate in their most
  favorite activity (Allen Donnelly 1985)
• There is a relationship between level of
  expertise for rock climbers and social groups
  (Hollenhorst, 1987)
• Skill level increase from beginner to highly
  skilled, social group affiliation changed from
  family to peers with similar interest

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Social Groups

• Social group can be a good predictor of level of
  engagement (involvement) Ewert Hollenhorst,
  1989.
• Schuett (1995) classified kayakers based on
  difficulty of river run or class of river, social
  motivations for participating in kayaking and
  group size.

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Social Groups

• Whitewater kayak social groups as indicated by
  Schuett (1995)
• Classes (commercial trips)
• Guide (commercial trips)
• Alone
• Friends (people you knew before the trip, social
  activity)
• Teachers
• Outing clubs
• Fellow paddlers (people you didnt know before
  the trip)

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Motivation

• The most prevalent approach to understanding
  recreation in resource management has been a
  motivational approach that views recreation as an
  intrinsically rewarding experience rather than an
  activity (Driver Torcher, 1970 Page )
• Recreational engagement can be defined as a
  package of specific psychological outcomes, which
  are realized from a recreation engagement
  (Manfredo, Driver, Brown, 1983 p. 264)

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Motivation

• Motivation is a specific psychological outcome
  behaviors will be expressed that enable the
  attainment of the desired psychological outcome
• There are different motivations for participating
  in various outdoor recreation activities, but
  intra-activity differences might also exist

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Experience Use History (EUH)

• A person with a significant history of engagement
  in a recreation activity will have different
  perceptions (schema, routines, skills and habits)
  than beginners (Schreyer Lime, 1984)
• This difference is more readily apparent in
  activities that require high level of skill (i.e.
  rock climbing and whitewater boating)

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EUH

• Persons seeking different types of experiences
  may require different environmental conditions
  for satisfaction (Schreyer Lime, 1984 p. 133)

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Setting

• The setting in outdoor recreation is an integral
  part of the experience. In whitewater kayaking,
  it is essential to the experience.
• (less than 1 of the rivers in the U.S. have
  class II water or higher)

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Techniques to describe interactions

• Recreation Specialization (Bryan, 1977)
• A multidimensional construct with behavioral and
  affective aspects of which past experience is a
  strong component. A continuum along which people
  progress from the general to the specific.
• Novices
• Generalists
• Technique specialists
• Technique/setting specialists
• Place Identity (Prohansky, Fabian, Kamanoff,
  1983)
• Referred to as a combination of attitudes,
  thoughts, values, beliefs and meanings reaching
  far beyond emotional attachment and belonging to
  particular places

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Techniques to measure perception

• Visitor Employed Photography (VEP)
• Visitors photograph the landscape and the
  researcher or group categorizes the photographs
• Experience Sampling Model (ESM)
• Photographs or journals (visitor is cued and
  asked to record what they are observing)
• Visitor Generated list (Perkins, 1990)
• Visitor is asked to recall the experience and
  write down what they perceived (

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Environmental PerceptionConceptual Model
Social Group
Motives
Environmental Perception
EUH
River
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Proposed Methods

• On-site questionnaire
• 4 regional rivers (Southeast)
• Nantahala (North Carolina)
• Chattooga (South Carolina/Georgia)
• Ocoee (Tennessee)
• Tallulah Gorge (Georgia)
• Post trip intercepts

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Study Sites

• Nantahala River
• Dam controlled
• 250,000 whitewater trips a year
• Class II-IV whitewater (beginner-intermediate)
• Chattooga River
• Wild and Scenic River (designated in 1974)
• One of the longest free-flowing mountain rivers
  in the Southeast
• 28,600 users in 1974, 84,502 users in 1997
• Class II-VI (beginner-expert)

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Study Sites

• Ocoee River
• Dam controlled highly managed river
• Class III-IV rapids (intermediate)
• Highly used by rafting companies
• USFS, TVA, Tennessee State Parks
• Tallulah Gorge
• Dam controlled, Georgia Power, Georgia State
  Parks
• Releases in Fall and Spring
• Once permitted, now open
• Class V rapids (expert only)

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Variables

• EUH
• Social Group
• Motivations
• River kayaked
• Environmental Perception

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It is hypothesized that

• Differences do exist in kayakers based on social
  group, demographics, EUH and rivers kayaked
• Environmental perceptions are different for
  kayakers based on motivations, social group,
  developmental state, EUH and river kayaked.
• Kayakers can be classified into meaningful groups
  which are distinct based on environmental
  perceptions.

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It is hypothesized that

• It is possible to determine environmental
  perceptions based on motivations, social group,
  developmental stage, EUH and river kayaked.

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Questions, Comments Suggestions