自然公园

A dozen SLAB counters have been installed along the 250 km (155 mi) Cathar Trail in the upper Aude Valley. The count data has been compared with data from field surveys of visitors; surveys of local accommodation providers (campgrounds, mountain huts, cottages, hotels, etc.); telephone and mail surveys; panel discussions (academics, technicians, etc.); and local tourism promoters (hiking guide sales, etc.) to assess the socio-economic impacts of trail hiking.

A proposed project to close a mountain hut and a number of roads in order to protect the local wild reindeer population has been a subject of debate in an area of Northern Norway for several decades. To justify the project’s viability, the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) has installed Eco-Counters to compare the spatial and temporal distribution of visitors with the GPS positions of the wild reindeer.  

Two car counters and approximately ten SLAB counters were installed at strategic points (parking lots, dams, lakes and other points of interest) on Mount Saint-Victoire in southern France since 2002. The quantitative data logged at these points was combined with a large-scale qualitative study in 2009. The study revealed, among other things, that the flows of visitors had shifted and that areas that initially had not often been frequented by visitors had a much higher chance of being accessed.

Eco-Counters with the ability to distinguish between different types of users had major positive impacts on Portofino National Park in Italy. It was a very effective way for park managers to resolve usage conflict between cyclists and pedestrians.