Browsing by Author "Ilkka, Emma"

Path erosion is one of the most visible impacts of hiking and in addition to ecological problems, it reduces visitors's possibilities to enjoy surrounding nature. As a part of path management, it is important to understand what factors will affect erosion. This study tries to find the factors that are responsible of path erosion in Sipoonkorpi area, near Helsinki, Finland. The foundation of Sipoonkorpi National Park in 2011 has increased the need for new marked paths and other services. Since the current services are still scarce, it is yet possible to effectively affect their placement and number. Path erosion was measured in 387 points that were placed randomly along paths. The data collected from every measuring point included the width of a path, the depth of a path, slope steepness, forest type and soil type. Furthermore, digital dataset was used to calculate the distance between every measuring point and the nearest parking area or densely build area. The effect of independent variables to width and depth was tested with generalized linear models (GLM), generalized additive models (GAM) and hierarchical partitioning. Both the width of a path and the depth of a path was best explained by a generalized additive model that included soil type, slope steepness and distance. According to hierarchical partitioning, distance, soil type and sidehill steepness have the greatest impact on the width of a path, and soil type, sidehill steepness and forest type have the greatest impact on the width of a path. In general, generalized additive models explained deviance better than generalized linear models and independent variables managed to explain width better than depth. Based on these results, the widest paths are located in sidehills with exposed rock. It is difficult to keep a balance on a sloping terrain and as a result, slipping feet will destroy vegetation, especially lichen, and widen the path. High hills with exposed rock tops are particularly fragile to trampling because their vegetation is usually fragile and hikers tend to wander around when searching the best view or trying to find their way back to the path. The impact of distance on erosion is evident, as the widest paths are located near parking areas or residental areas. The impact of distance is similar than the impact of visitor numbers investigated in previous studies. Differing from previous studies, fall line steepness explained very poorly width or depth.