Mapping Activities in Recreational Trail With Spatial Video

Understanding the usage patterns of a trail in a university environment is crucial for assessing the functionality of the trail and evaluating its impact to health in college students. This article presents a novel approach to map the usage patterns of a university trail by employing spatial video in a geographic information system (GIS) environment. Physical activities in the southeast part of the main campus of Kent State University (Kent, Ohio), were filmed by a GPS-enabled camera unit. The observed physical activities at the time of filming were coded from the videos and visualized as maps. The study finds that activities tend to concentrate near the center of campus, the farther from the campus, the fewer number of activities. The usage patterns are different between men and women. The activity zones of men are more dispersed, while those of women are more concentrated near campus center.