u/Brave_Bird_246

Hi Y'all,

I am a consultant who works with organizations that either have recreational trails/property and deal with people who use them or organizations that have recreation-motivated people and deal with land/trails. I am preparing to conduct a behavioral study on the movement patterns of hiking trail visitors on behalf of my client, a 501c3 nonprofit environmental conservation organization, in partnership with a multidisciplinary Masters' thesis project.

I am getting a bit stuck in identifying the best option for tracking visitors' behavior and I'm hoping y'all can help me come up with some creative, maybe even cost-effective, solutions.

Methodology: Recruit participants at the trailhead. Attach a GPS tracking device to the participant. Assign the participant (and GPS track) an anonymous ID. Participants will be asked to keep the tracking device on their person at all times unless they go into the water (shoreline trail). Participants will hike whatever portion of the trail they want to, behaving however they normally would have, knowing that their track will be anonymized. Upon returning to the trailhead, researchers will stop tracking, sync the track, thank participants, etc. Tracks will be analyzed in ESRI ArcMaps Pro and/or ArcOnline. We have an institutional ESRI license.

Technical specifications required:

• 5-10 units deployed at a time, live tracking all 10 would be cool but unnecessary
• Minimum 30' accuracy; 10' or less would be ideal
• Must use GPS/GNSS satellites to track. No cell service here, about 15 mi from the US-Canadian border. Bluetooth from a base unit in the parking lot won't work, given the 4-mile rocky, winding trail. GPS-only devices have typically been within 10-30' accuracy here using FieldMaps and an iPhone w/o a booster...I am not an expert but given that the site is about 15 miles from the N. border I assume access to GNSS would likely increase accuracy? (correct me if I'm wrong)
• Tracking interval of 1 minute or less to remain in the 30' of accuracy window for visitors moving at an average of 2mph (difficult terrain, lots of special features to look at)
• Route tracks must be able to be exported into ESRI ArcGIS Pro or ArcOnline for analysis (.GPX, .SHP, etc.)
• De-identification & data privacy is a must. Asking folks to use their own devices is a no-go for privacy reasons and also because if they don't have an app, they won't have enough service to download it in the parking lot.
• Ideally, the unit would be as unobtrusive and free of bells and whistles as possible to prevent use of the device to influence the participants' behavior on trail. In an exit interview, they will be asked if they used their own devices to assist in navigation/other behaviors and to describe any said use, but they will be informed at the beginning that any use of the tracking device to influence their behavior will result in their participation being discarded.
• Ideally, since the study will last 2-3 months, any subscriptions required would be turned off/cancelled after the study is completed. HOWEVER, if this study is successful, my client and I will likely scale and repeat across multiple other properties so I am OK with the investment of buying all the units vs renting or borrowing them

Things I've looked into & issues I've encountered:

1. Fleet trackers - typical tracking interval is 2-30 minutes maximum
2. Dog collars - typically no capacity for downloading the historical routes
3. Asset trackers - long tracking interval & no ability to download tracks (IE Spot Trace)
4. The obvious hiking navigation devices, IE Garmin E-Trex
   1. Cost
   2. So many more bells & whistles than I need, risks use by client/biasing results
   3. Those without all the extras don't have the tracking interval I need (Garmin InReach Messenger/Spot Gen4 Messenger)
5. Building my own - Way beyond the scope of this contract haha I don't have time or talent for that on hand
6. Currently under consideration: 10 burner phones without a cell contract, attach a Garmin GLO satellite booster, pre-download field maps, start and stop it for them at the trailhead - feels complicated & bulky but it's the best I've got right now.

What do you think? What off the wall ideas do you have?

Thanks in advance!!