Wilderness search and rescue can be assisted by video searchers in manned aircraft. The video searcher's primary task is to find clues on the ground. Due to altitude, it may be difficult to resolve details on the ground with a standard video camera. As the video streams at a constant frame rate, the searcher may become distracted by other tasks. While handling these tasks the searcher may miss important clues or spend extra time flying over the search area; either outcome decreases both the effectiveness of the video searcher and the chances of successfully finding missing persons. We develop an efficient software system that allows the video searcher to deal with distractions while identifying, resolving, and geolocating clues using mixed-resolution video. We construct an inexpensive camera rig that feeds video and telemetry to this system. We also develop a simple flight simulator for generating synthetic search video for simulation and testing purposes. To validate our methods we conduct a user study and a field trial. An analysis of the user study results suggests that our system can combine the video streams without loss of performance in the primary or secondary search task. The resulting gains in screen-space efficiency can then be used to present more information, such as scene context or larger-resolution images. Additionally, the field trial suggests that the software is capable of robustly operating in a real-world environment.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between job performance of wilderness and adventure therapy (WAT) field guides and personality traits. Specifically, this study utilized the NEO-PI-R to assess personality and the Field Guide Performance Evaluation (FGPE) to assess job performance. Job performance was measured by managers, peers, and WAT participants. The sample consisted of 89 personality assessments, gathered from both the U.S. and Canada. Ordinary least squares regression analysis indicated there was a non-significant relationship between field guide job performance and personality. Findings provide implications for WAT practitioners seeking the most qualified field guides possible.

This essay analyzes the cultural concepts of wilderness, utopia, and the pastoral in relation to The Beach from ecocritical and postcolonial perspectives. Evidently, the pastoral is critical in shaping the Western idea of wilderness, and the utopistic mindset plays an equally crucial role in wilderness gazing. The backpackers in the novel seek authenticity—which they feel their everyday lives lack in society—in the remote, ostensibly pristine nature to escape people like themselves. As established in the analysis, the beach dwellers thus undermine their own ideologies when colonizing both nature and people and, in some ways, culturally slum their existence at the beach. They feel better about themselves when living under so-called harder conditions with moderated luxuries and provisions; this ultimately presents how the Western backpacker’s view of nature and indigenous cultures is highly influenced by American pop culture.

No description available.

The primary objective of this research was to examine knowledge levels of low-impact recreational practices and to explore the effectiveness of education in reducing impacting behavior among users of Shining Rock Wilderness. Wilderness users were found to have little low-impact knowledge, scoring only 59.7 percent correct on a 10-item multiple choice test. Knowledge of recommended practices regarding campsite selection, one of the most important low-impact behaviors, was much lower at 32.9 percent correct. These low scores are likely due to evolving agency low-impact recommendations and the complexity of the task regarding proper campsite selection behavior. Wilderness users had a moderately strong positive correlation between knowledge of campsite selection recommendations and intentions to select a wilderness campsite. The relationship between knowledge and and actual behavior observed in the wilderness and intentions and behavior appeared to be positive, but conclusions were limited by the small number of field observations. Posters on proper campsite selection, tent placement, and use of backpack stoves rather than campfires were placed on trailhead signs to increase knowledge, foster appropriate intentions, and improve actual behavior. A field experiment with a control group (e.g., no educational posters) showed that the trailhead posters had little positive effect on knowledge or intentions, improving only one of the five tested knowledge items and one of the three behavioral intentions. The posters improved fire building behavior, but not tent placement or campsite selection. Trailhead posters seem to be more effective at improving behaviors that do not require complex judgments about campsite impacts and wilderness use levels. / Master of Science

The use of wilderness rangers to educate visitors on Without-A-Trace camping and wilderness ethics at trailheads is a common management practice, but little is known about how such contacts affect the visitors' wilderness experiences. The purpose of this study was to determine whether Shining Rock Wilderness visitors perceived trailhead contacts as light-handed or heavy-handed and the factors which caused them to perceive the contact the way they did. It also determined whether or not the visitors felt that site conditions in the wilderness were getting better or worse. On-site questionnaires were administered to visitors as they left the area. A majority felt the trailhead contact was a light-handed way to manage wilderness use. The visitors felt that the contact did not take away their freedom to choose how, when or where to recreate. The rangers were perceived as friendly, knowledgeable, and non-authoritarian. The condition of Shining Rock Wilderness was perceived to be relatively free of site impacts. There were no significant differences in the visitors' perceptions of the ranger or the contact due to the sex or experience of the ranger or the sex, age, or experience of the visitors. Implications for wilderness management and research are discussed. / M.S.

Includes vita. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 187 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The contemporary concept of wilderness, which is central to environmental theory and activism, is both a help and a hindrance to government policy and to popular environmental beliefs. The Judeo-Christian religious tradition and Locke's property theory provides much of the western cultural and historical basis of humans' environmental attitudes that basically engender exploitation. I argue that a more precise interpretation of Genesis and of Locke reveals that both sources actually promote environmental stewardship while decrying ecological abuse. Next I analyze the history and shortcomings of various wilderness concepts. These shortcomings are all forms of an exclusionist mentality and result in some harmful theoretical and practical applications. / ABSTRACT: Some of these applications include the separation of humans from nature, and the propensity of governments and the public to allow ecological degradation in non-wilderness areas. Yet there are beneficial aspects to wilderness that contribute to a deeper understanding of human nature and our place in the world. Wilderness helps us to remember our wild and primal aspects that provide a connection with nature. In light of the perils and power of wilderness I offer a new, radical, inclusive, and expansive notion of wilderness that I name "dwellness." Dwellness is a normative ethical position where all areas upon the earth ought to be viewed by people in the same way as wilderness areas are currently viewed, but with some modifications. Unlike wilderness, dwellness includes humans within nature and also contains the idea of sustainable living practices. To support dwellness I turn to Martin Heidegger. / ABSTRACT: By identifying the world as a place where we dwell and in which we belong, we come to a more profound understanding of Being, or existence, in general and of our own particular modes of being. By learning to look at the world in this new, yet old, way we may then understand how important and central is the world, a mode of Being, to the existence and maintenance of our Being. Finally, I answer some possible objections to dwellness. These objections revolve around problems of industrial pollution (waste), which, under dwellness, would have to be considered natural. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Several studies in the field of outdoor recreation management and planning have used computer simulation modeling to demonstrate its utility as a tool to help managers monitor encounters and similar visitor use-related indicators of quality. However, previous applications of computer simulation modeling to outdoor recreation planning and management have generally done little to assess the reliability, or precision, of model estimates. The purpose of this research is to explore several questions concerning the reliability of computer simulation model estimates for monitoring wilderness solitude-related indicators of quality. In particular, can reliable estimates of solitude-related indicators be generated for low use recreation environments, such as backcountry and wilderness areas? Is there a spatial component to questions about the reliability of computer simulation estimates for low use visitor landscapes? The research presented in this thesis examines the reliability of computer simulation estimates of wilderness solitude indicators that account for the timing and location of hiking and camping encounters in the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This study was designed to model visitor use and inter-group encounters in the Cosby and Big Creek areas of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which are located within the park's proposed wilderness area. Two primary types of information about visitor use in the study area were collected to construct the computer simulation model in this study. First, information was gathered about the amount of visitation to the study area; second, information was collected about visitors' travel routes within the study area. Three alternative methods were used to estimate the number of replications needed to obtain desired levels of precision for the visitor-based and spatially based computer simulation model outputs. The results suggest that computer simulation models of visitor use can generate precise estimates for a small to moderate number of visitor-based and spatially-based outputs. However, there are constraints to generating precise estimates of use-related outputs as the number of outputs estimated simultaneously becomes large. This challenge is particularly pronounced in cases where at least some of the outputs are derived for low use attractions, trails, or camping locations. / Master of Science

[pt] A proposta da dissertação é uma comparação da idéia de identidade nacional no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos do final do século XIX, com enfoque nas obras de Oliveira Lima no Brasil e de Jackson Turner nos Estados Unidos. O conceito analítico utilizado na questão da identidade nacional é o de comunidades imaginadas, de Benedict Anderson, em que os membros de uma sociedade, desconhecidos uns dos outros na sua maioria, se sentem ligados entre si por símbolos, referências e experiências em comum. Na obra de Oliveira Lima, a comunidade imaginada é construída pelo Estado-Monarquia (instalado com a vinda de D. João VI), num sincretismo com a natureza local e os grupos raciais presentes (índios e negros). A centralização política e a criação de uma matriz institucional de cunho nacional possibilitam ao Brasil sua consolidação como Nação, principalmente pelo viés das artes e da ciência. Na obra de Jackson Turner, a comunidade imaginada é construída pelas bases da sociedade: homens comuns e livres enfrentam a natureza selvagem num embate em que tanto homem como meio ambiente são transformados. A interação homem-meio ambiente, que se caracteriza como a experiência da Fronteira, gera um produto cultural distintamente americano, rompendo assim os laços com a Europa e criando uma sociedade caracterizada pelo movimento, atrito e a eterna busca do melhoramento e do Progresso. / [en] This dissertation aims to compare two distinct ideas of national identity in Brazil and the United States in the late 19th century. The focus is on the works of Oliveira Lima in Brazil and Jackson Turner in the United States. The idea of national identity is analyzed in terms of the concept of imagined communities proposed by Benedict Anderson, in which members of a society, unknown to each other, feel bound together by common symbols, references and experiences. In the work of Oliveira Lima, the imagined community is constructed by the State - in this case the Monarchy, which came to Brazil with D. João VI in the early 19th century. It is an idea of identity characterized by the fusion of European symbols and institutions with local elements - the natural environment and racial groups (Indians and Blacks). Political centralization and the creation of a national institutional network made it possible for Brazil to be consolidated and conceived of as a Nation, especially through the intellectual efforts of artists and scientists. In the work of Jackson Turner, the imagined community is constructed from the grassroots, through the efforts of free, common men in their confrontation with the natural environment. The duel between Man and Nature, in which each element transforms and is transformed by the other, creates a uniquely American product. It is a new cultural type distinct from its European counterpart. This idea of identity is characterized by the Frontier experience and creates a society marked by movement, conflict and the eternal pursuit of material improvement and Progress.

Wilderness Experience Programs (WEPs) take youth into wilderness settings in order to teach wilderness travel and leadership, expand personal capacity, and equip youth with coping skills in order to manage life’s difficulties. Though considerable research has been conducted on WEPs, no one has sought to understand the student experience these programs provide through a constructive-developmental lens (Kegan, 1982, 1994). The purpose of this case study was to explore, describe, assess, and understand–using the framework of Robert Kegan’s (1982, 1994) constructive-developmental theory–the impact a 21-day wilderness backpacking experience had on five participating youth. The researcher believed that understanding how participants in a wilderness backpacking course make sense of their experience through the lens of their constructive-developmental perspective might help inform the theories of change that underpin WEPs, the means by which desired change is facilitated, and the reasons why some youth thrive and others struggle. This exploratory study utilized a case study approach. The researcher embedded as a participant-observer for the duration on a 21-day backpacking course with Outward Bound Canada in the Ghost River Wilderness, Alberta, Canada. Nine youth participated in the expedition, with five male students volunteering as research participants. Pre-trip and post-trip administrations of the Subject-Object Interview and post-expedition semi-structured interviews were conducted with each research participant. Additionally, the researcher made field observations and wrote field notes. The subsequent analysis produced in-depth profiles of each research participant’s experience of the course, pre and post expedition scores from the Subject-Object Interviews, and a description of how each research participant’s experience might be understood through the lens of their constructive-developmental perspective. Although no significant changes to constructive-developmental perspective were realized, implications of these analyses were discussed, conclusions were drawn, and recommendations were made. / Graduate