Vegetation Cover Change Detection by Satellite Imagery on Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine, USA: Does it Have Potential for Hiking Trail Management?

The primary objective of this study was to detect fractional vegetation cover changes associated with off-trail hiking or trampling using three vegetation indices (NDVI, SAVI and TVI) on Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine, USA. The study area was divided into two different zones on the basis of proximity to the trail network (Zone 1: within 100 m from the trail network, and Zone 2:100 m to 400 m from the trail network), with the expectation of much higher impact and lower recovery in closer proximity to the trail network. Spatial interactions between the trail network and the decreased vegetation areas were tested using Cross K-functions to assess whether or not the existing trail network attracted more vegetation impact in a spatial context. The results showed no statistically significant differences between the two zones in terms of the amounts of recovery and impact (all p values >0.05), indicating that the magnitudes of impact and recovery were similar regardless of the proximity to the trail. Nonetheless, the applied methods based on zoning and spatial interaction analyses were useful for identifying spatially explicit patterns of vegetation impact related to the hiking trail network.