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What Geocaching Tells Us About Cultural Ecosystem Services in Chittenden County, Vermont
Trokenheim, Rachel
Trokenheim, Rachel
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Abstract
Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are intangible and subjective, thus difficult to study, yet still important to account for in decision making as they provide benefits and value to everyone who spends time in nature. This study used geocaching, an outdoor treasure hunting activity where participants find hidden containers using GPS enabled devices, to analyze spatial patterns of CES in Chittenden County, Vermont. It asked first how land cover and accessibility related to geocache popularity, and second, what CES are people experiencing, and where, when they geocache. This project also addressed several gaps in knowledge and methodology. This study used revealed cache popularity, measured via quests-per-year, land cover data, and road data to understand the importance of land cover and accessibility in cache popularity, finding that land cover was not influential in cache popularity while accessibility did influence popularity. The second question was answered by analyzing the content of text logs of the most popular geocaches. Logs were thematically analyzed for mention of CES manually and with the assistance of artificial intelligence, and mapped using ArcGIS Pro to identify patterns. Community, recreation/fun, and aesthetics were the most frequently mentioned CES, while spirituality and reflection was the least frequently mentioned. Some patterns remained consistent across land types, such as community being the most mentioned CES, while other patterns were variable. Interestingly, built environments had some of the highest mentions of aesthetics, in addition to water. Overall, this study highlighted the role geocaching plays in building community and connecting people to their environment, as well as quantifying the benefits that geocachers get when they cache. This study provides valuable information for land use decision making processes and demonstrates one application of a new method of collecting and analyzing spatially explicit data.
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Rachel Trokenheim Honors College Thesis
Date
2026-04-29
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Rachel Trokenheim Thesis.pdf
Adobe PDF, 7.96 MB
- Embargoed until 2027-04-30
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Environmental Sciences