English
Attendance to natural parks is increasing, driven by a growing desire for nature and the outdoors. But this attractiveness raises new challenges for managers: How to preserve ecosystems, distribute visitor flows, and make the right decisions without objective data?
Unlike an urban space or a structured tourist site, a natural park can extend over hundreds of hectares, with multiple accesses, sometimes informal, and various uses: walkers, mountain bikers, riders, long-distance hikers.
This diversity makes monitoring attendance particularly complex, which is why it is important to have systems adapted to these specific contexts. Whether you are a community, a regional natural park, a conservatory or an inter-municipality, it has become crucial to understand the uses to better plan your actions and preserve sensitive environments while maintaining the public's welcome.
Five natural tourist sites were equipped with sensors as part of a study conducted with the Remiremont PETR. The data makes it possible to objectify tourist pressure, especially on the fragile Cascade site, frequented by 230,000 visitors per year.
It is a quantitative arbitration base that has allowed us to refine our plan for managing natural tourist sites.
Update twice a day, visualization on a dedicated interface
Revision of the management plan using concrete indicators
Precise measurement of unexpected overcrowding (230,000 visitors/year)
Integration of data into presentation materials to elected officials
Three counting points have been set up around Lake Gérardmer, a sensitive site subject to overcrowding. The objective was to accurately estimate attendance in order to anticipate regulatory needs and possibly extend the system to other routes.
Thanks to the data collected, we have a clearer vision of periods of high traffic and can better guide developments.
By hour, day and season, with tracking peak traffic
Identification of other points to be instrumentated
Better forecasting of flows in sensitive areas
Improve environmental management and public awareness.
Identification of sections with low attendance to optimize maintenance as part of the Territorial Hiking Plan.
Analysis of erosion and safety through the continuous observation of attendance.
Seasonal monitoring in 11 municipalities to measure the summer impact and adjust management.
