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Visitation to Cape Cod: A novel approach evaluating water quality impacts on visitation to coastal recreation areas on Cape Cod using data derived from cell phone locations
Citation:
Furey, R., N. Merrill, K. Mulvaney, M. Mazzotta, AND J. Sawyer. Visitation to Cape Cod: A novel approach evaluating water quality impacts on visitation to coastal recreation areas on Cape Cod using data derived from cell phone locations. Virtual National Recreational Water Quality Workshop, NA, Virtual, April 06 - 08, 2021.
Impact/Purpose:
We describe a novel approach for evaluating the impacts of water quality on visitation to water recreation areas in New England with a focus on Cape Cod. To accomplish this, we estimate the effects of beach closures on human behavior using data derived from cell phone locations. As water recreation is increasingly recognized as a primary driver of economic activity for coastal communities, it is crucial to have accurate visitation estimates to assess the economic benefits and properly manage natural resources. We demonstrate the ability of cell data to accomplish this for the context of coastal recreation areas in New England.
Description:
Coastal recreation is increasingly recognized as a primary driver of economic activity both across New England and nationally. In New England, coastal water quality has become a pervasive issue and an important factor in the availability and quality of coastal visits. While there has been significant progression in the understanding of the physical science of pollution, capturing its associated market and non-market damages has remained a challenge for researchers. In order to capture these damages, it is crucial to have accurate visitation estimates. This study uses cell data to estimate the effects of closures on visitation to water recreation areas on Cape Cod and in New England, USA for the summer season of 2017. Using a model of daily visitation combined with the dataset on bacterial closures, we were able to detect the impact of closures for coastal access points on Cape Cod, spatially large access points on Cape Cod, and monitored access points on Cape Cod. Our findings represent geographic mobility patterns for over 7 million unique visits and suggest that beach closures result in approximately 1,800 lost visits on Cape Cod beaches during the summer season of 2017. Our work demonstrates the potential for cell data to reveal behavioral patterns in response to a dynamic natural resource.
