Design for Outdoor Recreation

Abstract

Outdoor recreation and its cousin, nature tourism, are the big growth areas in leisure and holiday activities today. As the populations of most Western countries become more urbanized, and as work becomes less and less connected with the land, many more people are seeking to regain a connection with nature and with wild landscapes. There are many reasons for visiting and exploring the great outdoors: physical exercise, release from the stresses of city life, fresh air, getting closer to nature, enjoyment of the scenery, hunting and fishing…the list goes on. For most people it is probably a combination of reasons. The trends in how people spend their time change from year to year, but contain broadly the same ingredients: a chance to escape from the city, to be alone, to be close to nature, and to relax and enjoy oneself. The activities that people pursue range from strenuous hiking into wild mountainous areas, days from the nearest settlement, to a gentle stroll in a park or woodland a short distance out of town, or just sitting and looking at the view. ‘The outdoors’ is an all-embracing term that covers all those places where people feel they can achieve that special feeling of being ‘away from it all’. To some, born and bred in the city, it may be an area of farmland a few steps away from home. Urban forests, increasingly common in Europe and North America, can provide opportunities for solitude and quietness well within the city limits. Other people may need to go further afield, such as to the emptier, less humandominated landscapes of the Scottish highlands, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, or the Black Forest of Germany. Further afield are the mountain ranges above the settled valleys of the Alps or Pyrenees, the fells of Lapland, or the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington, where a few hours’ hike from a road or village can take you into areas where nature dominates. Finally, there are truly wild, remote areas, accessible only by long hike, float plane or helicopter, boat or kayak, where civilization is utterly absent. In most of these landscapes people can make their presence felt: creating paths and trails, leaving rubbish behind, lighting fires, disturbing wildlife, and damaging crops. Some areas are so fragile that it takes only a few visitors to damage plant life and cause erosion that takes decades to heal. Other areas are more robust, but are so attractive to visitors that they start to wear out under the sheer weight of numbers. Visitors need managing if landscapes, habitats and wildlife are to survive, and if the enjoyment and purpose of the visit are to be fulfilled. The places that we visit generally need some help in order to cope with the pressure that we place on them, and we need facilities to help our enjoyment. So we have to design and maintain a wide range of features in all but the wildest, remotest landscapes, where the absence of anything man-mad