Mobile phone data reveals spatiotemporal recreational patterns in conservation areas during the COVID pandemic

Abstract

Understanding visitation patterns is crucial in developing effective conservation strategies for protected areas, as it serves as an indicator for operating an ecosystem management plan that balances biodiversity and ecosystem services intertwined with public health and social benefits. However, limited data availability during the COVID-19 pandemic has hindered the comprehensive understanding of temporal changes in realized cultural ecosystem services, particularly in recreational activities within these areas. Our study utilized GPS data from mobile phones to quantify visitor characteristics and their contribution to recreational ecosystem services in protected areas at a national scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimated the pandemic's relative impact on visitor patterns at 98 visitor centers in national parks and Ramsar sites in Japan. The total number of visitors and travel distance in various sizes of protected areas decreased after the outbreak of COVID-19. The number of visitors in the protected areas displayed a quick recovery despite the increasing positive COVID-19 cases during the following summer. Post-pandemic, visitors showed a preference for less densely populated protected areas closer to their home range. Our findings partly suggest that protecting a diverse range of conservation areas along the urban gradient could be an effective strategy for maintaining the resilience of recreational services during a prolonged pandemic.

Figure 1

Conceptual scheme for identifying COVID-19 impacts on the use of conservation areas using mobile phone location data.

Figure 2

The impact of COVID-19 on the number of visitors and the travel distance to the visitor centers in the conservation area. (a–c) the relative number of visitors, (d–f) the relative travel distance. Size category of conservation area: a, d: large; b, e: medium; c, f: small. Pre COVID-19: Jan–Dec 2019 (dotted black line), During COVID-19: Jan–Dec 2020 (red line). Grey shading along the lines indicates the 95% confidence interval. Dark gray boxes on the x-axis indicate the peak-wave periods (i.e., 1st, 2nd and 3rd waves) of COVID-19 positive cases in the study area.

Figure 3

Response curves from generalized additive models (GAM) based on visitor patterns in 98 visitor centers in the national parks and Ramsar sites. Relative change in visitor numbers (dotted line) and travel distance (continuous line) to (a) distance from metropolitan areas, (b) proportion of urban area, (c) annual number of visitors before COVID-19, (d) mean travel distance before COVID-19, (e) size of protected area (effects compared to small size group). Colors indicate 95% confidence interval. n.s. not significant.

Figure 4

Changes in spatial patterns of visitor characteristics after COVID-19. (a) Change ratio of number of visitors and annual number of visitors before COVID-19, (b) Change ratio of travel distance and mean travel distance before COVID-19. The background color of the map indicates the urban share on the 1 km grid.