The School of Natural Resources Distinguished Lecture Series brings renowned researchers and scientists to the UT campus to present on various natural resource-related topics.
Upcoming
Counting Footsteps in the Wild: Digital Mobility Data for visitor estimation and park management
Dr. Matthew Brownlee
Clemson University
4 p.m. Tuesday, October 28, 2025
156/157 Plant Biotechnology Building
Abstract:
Visitor use data are essential to sustainable management of public lands, yet traditional monitoring tools often fall short of providing timely, scalable, or site-specific insights. However, emerging digital mobility datasets—such as geotagged social media posts, community science submissions, and anonymized mobile device traces—offer promising tools for estimating visitation and visitor behavior in parks and protected areas. This presentation showcases applications of digital mobility data—including mobile device traces and social media activity—to estimate visitation and understand patterns of use in U.S. wildlife refuges and coastal estuarine reserves. Drawing on findings from a national-scale study and a regional case study in South Carolina, we evaluate multiple data streams, assess their correlation with empirical counts, and demonstrate how models that integrate these sources can improve visitation estimates. We also explore spatial and seasonal trends in visitor movement within sensitive ecological zones. These results underscore the value—and limitations—of digital mobility data, and the critical role of statistical calibration and refuge-specific effects in advancing next-generation visitor use monitoring.
