Designing recreational trails in Sarigol National Park and Protected Area, Iran

Aims: Access paths to natural attractions in protected areas must be designed and developed considering environmental impacts. Visitors’ movement in areas susceptible to soil erosion may cause destructive impacts on trails, such as widening, increasing susceptibility to erosion, and damaging surrounding vegetation. This research aims to suggest a sustainable trail network (off-road vehicles and hiking trails) in the Sarigol National Park and Protected Area, Materials Methods: The study has been conducted based on the least-cost path algorithm and comparing the results with existing recreation trails. The required field information was obtained through the study area, including the width of 431 trails and 15 environmental factors affecting the trail width. Analysis of Covariance has been used for estimating the potential of pathwidth expansion. The model’s accuracy was assessed by root mean square error, which is 29cm for hiking trails and 126cm for off-road vehicle trails. Findings: One optimized off-road vehicle trail and one optimized hiking trail in the study were suggested using a degradation map and least cost patch model. The present study’s findings indicated that existing paths are located in areas with high susceptibility to widening because of crowding. Conclusion: Geology, climate, distance from villages, and distance from the river (as the indicators of human presence) have been considered influential factors on hiking trails in the Sarigol National Park and Protected Area. Constructing new trails in sites with minimum susceptibility to degradation or decreasing crowding impacts on existing trails is recommended.