Impact of Climate Change on the Preferred Season for Outdoor Water Activities
1
Tourism Policy Research Division, Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, Seoul 07511, Korea
2
Interdisciplinary Program in Landscape Architecture, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
3
Department of Landscape Architecture, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2017, 9(9), 1535; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9091535
Received: 28 June 2017 / Revised: 16 August 2017 / Accepted: 24 August 2017 / Published: 29 August 2017
The purpose of this study is to predict changes in the season for outdoor water activities due to climate change. Nine public outdoor swimming pools in three megacities of South Korea (Seoul, Daegu, and Busan) were selected as study sites. To determine the preferred weather conditions for outdoor water activities, the preference functions of weather elements for outdoor water activities were structured by finding the best-fitting lines with the Z-score of the number of visitors, which is calculated for each swimming pool each year, and the inflection points or the stabilized point of preference functions are set as thresholds for preferred weather conditions for outdoor water activities. To predict changes in the preferred season for outdoor water activities, future weather data for the 2030s, 2060s, and 2090s derived from RCP (Representative Concentration Pathway) scenarios are adapted to the thresholds of preferred weather conditions. The results of this study show that the preferred temperature range for outdoor water activities is: 24.6 °C to 35.0 °C in Seoul, 25.5 °C to 35.5 °C in Daegu, and 27.4 °C to 34.4 °C in Busan, and that the maximum threshold for precipitation is: 36.5 mm in Seoul, 31.5 mm in Daegu, and 26.5 mm in Busan. The results of this study show that the preferred season for outdoor water activities will expand compared to its current duration due to warmer temperatures in the future, and the preferred period for these activities will shift from June to September to May to June and September to October due to extremely hot weather in July and August beginning in the 2030s. The results of this study imply that there will be major changes in the demand and operation of outdoor water activities due to climate change, making it necessary to begin preparations to combat and respond to climate change.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
climate change; recreation; outdoor water activities; RCP scenarios; South Korea
▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Kim, S.; Park, J.H.; Lee, D.K. Impact of Climate Change on the Preferred Season for Outdoor Water Activities. Sustainability 2017, 9, 1535. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9091535
AMA Style
Kim S, Park JH, Lee DK. Impact of Climate Change on the Preferred Season for Outdoor Water Activities. Sustainability. 2017; 9(9):1535. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9091535
Chicago/Turabian StyleKim, Songyi; Park, Jin H.; Lee, Dong K. 2017. "Impact of Climate Change on the Preferred Season for Outdoor Water Activities" Sustainability 9, no. 9: 1535. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9091535
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Search more from Scilit