PNW SciCast Webinar: Using crowdsourced data to understand outdoor recreation demand and preferences on public lands

Crowdsourced data are becoming ever more widely available. These data can be employed to help researchers and managers better understand a variety nature-based recreational activities. Crowdsourced platforms (e.g., social media, citizen/community science projects, etc.) can be rich sources of data on outdoor recreation, often providing information at finer spatial and temporal scales and can be used to learn more about the choices and behaviors of outdoor recreationists. These data can be an important complement to what can be learned from existing administrative datasets. However, individuals self-select into participation in crowdsourced reporting, and they also choose the frequency at which they make reports.

Sonja Kolstoe, Research Economist, presents a collection of research illustrating how crowdsourced data can be used to model outdoor recreation demands and preferences among certain types of users of public lands. Some of this work explains how data from eBird, a large-scale community science project run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, can be useful even in the absence of additional representative data to correct models for sample selection. She then summarizes the types of information needed from population-representative administrative data sources to permit correction of models using crowdsourced data for self-selection into project participation.