Hello Friends,
It’s goPilot, aka Scott Vincent, writing. While I haven't been a member of SummitPost for long I have been a member over at 14ers.com for many years now and I have a favor to ask of fellow adventure peeps. I'm working on a research project for my Master's program in Community Conservation through Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. My focus is on "adventure science" and am keen to get the input of those folks who are more hard-core sports-people, i.e. users of this site. I am performing research on high-use alpine lake environments -- those lakes which are base camps for the remote 14ers (Lake Como, Willow Lake, Snowmass Lake, Navajo Lake, S. Colony, Lily Lake). I would like to have you, my fellow adventurers, who are visiting these areas to complete a survey as to your camping/Leave No Trace (LNT) practices.
Part of my research includes comparing remotely sensed data (i.e. satellite imagery) over a period of fifteen years to ascertain land changes in these popular areas. The survey is meant to be taken after you visit one of the alpine lakes and a piece of important information I request is to record the GPS coordinates of where you camp. The survey can be completed without the coordinates but having them would help me correlate the remote sensing data more effectively. Eventually, I would like to put the results into a Google Earth file and as such part of the public interface of the project would be an account of the surveys so that adventurers could see the land use and perhaps be more cognizant of LNT if they know directly what impact they and others may be having on the land.
The survey should take no longer than five minutes to complete as it consists of mostly multiple choice questions and none of the questions are mandatory. Confidentiality and anonymity of responses will be maintained to the highest degree possible. There is no reward for participating or consequence for not participating. You can take the survey for each lake that you visit. The survey will close on Oct, 10 2014. The survey can be accessed through this link: https://docs.google.com/a/miamioh.edu/f ... w/viewform
If you have any questions about the survey, please email me: vincensd@miamioh.edu or via this sites message board. Also, if you have questions or concerns about the rights of research subjects, you may contact the Research Compliance Office at Miami University at (513) 529-3600 or humansubjects@miamioh.edu. Thanks in advance, I really appreciate your input!
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