Semester
Fall
Date of Graduation
2010
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MS
College
Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
Department
Recreation, Parks and Tourism Resources
Committee Chair
Jinyang Deng.
Abstract
National Parks can reveal a glimpse into significant aspects of a culture. Visiting and experiencing a National Park can open a window into a culture's heritage, intellectual philosophy, triumphs, and sorrows. As of 2009, the National Park Service administered 393 National Park units, located across America and its territories. The purpose of this paper is to spatially investigate the National Park designation process. Examination of the trends and patterns within the National Park designation process required computation of the data via exploratory data analysis (EDA) and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA). This analysis will illustrate significant clusters and correlation between the location of a National Park unit and three overriding themes being; historical, political, and geographical in nature. Furthermore, the results show significant partisanship between the two major political affiliations, when making decisions regarding National Park unit designations. Additionally, it will be shown that political affiliation can be predicted from the type of National Park unit designation.
Recommended Citation
Servian, Daniel, "An Exploration of the Spatial Distribution of National Park Units" (2010). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 3067.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/3067