Revenues and subsidies

Swedish coastal and marine areas is one area type in Sweden where both the political and academic focus on outdoor recreation is needed. As stated in Chapter 1, the coastal and marine environment in Sweden is considered a very attractive and popular setting for recreational pur-poses and activities (SWAM 2012; Ericson 2014). This is no wonder, considering that Sweden has one of the longest coastal lines in Europe, including more than 270,000 islands (SCB 2013; SCB 2014). In addition, almost half of the population (49%) lives within 10 km of the coast, while up to nearly three-quarters of the population (71%) lives within 50 km of the coast (SWAM 2015). A recent study by Fredman and Hedblom (2015) has also shown that coastal walks are one of the most frequently practiced recreational activities in Sweden.

This is backed up by survey study from 2010 (BalticSurvey), which revealed that in Sweden alone around 5.92 million Swedes made at least one visit once a year to coastal and marine areas to spend their leisure time and recreate (SEPA 2010a). Adding to this more than one million second homes, a growing number of leisure boats and a multi-billion economy from coastal and marine based tourism, it is clear that the Swedish coasts and near coastal waters are fast becoming some of the most attractive, but also most exposed and crowded areas in Sweden (SWAM 2015; WSP 2015).

Aside from different recreational activities and interests in coastal and marine areas among the Swedish population, there are other circumstances that also influence the recreational use of the coastal and marine environment. For example, the coastal and marine areas characteristic to Sweden (and many of the Nordic countries) often

present unique landscape types, such as large archipelagos and bays.

These areas not only offer different and often unique recreational opportunities, but they also require special considerations in terms of how to work efficiently and professionally with outdoor recreation management and monitoring activities (Ankre 2007; SEPA 2015).

Furthermore, powerful legislations, most notably the Swedish right of public access and shoreline protection, are factors that also have to be taken into consideration. Aside from being two highly prioritized political goals, both legislations are important planning aspects that have a large influence on the recreational use of the coast and the sea, primarily by securing accessibility to coastal and marine areas (Ericson 2014; SEPA 2015; SWAM 2015). In terms of outdoor recreation management and monitoring, they both encourage management and monitoring of recreational activities in coastal and marine areas.

However, they also present challenges, particularly by giving recrea-tional users unrestricted and uncontrolled access to the coast and the sea, which in turn leads to a large degree of user dispersion. Special attention therefore needs to be given to how work with outdoor rec-reation management and monitoring can be developed in congruence with these unique area conditions and legislations.

Theory

3.1 Introduction

The importance and large presence of coastal and marine based recre-ation in Sweden motivates the thesis focus on developing a knowledge base on outdoor recreation monitoring in coastal and marine areas.

However, such a development not only implies significant methodo-logical work, but also concerns why this work needs attention and how it can be argued for theoretically. To answer these central questions, this chapter will contribute with a theoretical anchoring of outdoor recreation monitoring as a central topic not only in recreation man-agement, but also in recreation geography (see Chapter 1).

The chapter is divided into three connected parts. The first part works as a frame around the central thesis argument mentioned in Chapter 1: that a broader perspective on outdoor recreation monitoring is needed in order to work professionally with outdoor recreation in the management of coastal and marine areas. Specifically, this means looking into the importance of monitoring not only environmental processes, but also human relations and experiences in coastal and marine areas. To better understand this, an integrated landscape under-standing grounded within geographic landscape theory and a Nordic landscape perspective is introduced with a specific emphasis on the importance of working actively not just with material, but particularly also immaterial landscape qualities in recreational area contexts. With a base in this landscape understanding, the second part continues with a more applied theory focus with an aim to present several conceptual frameworks that have influenced the development and current use of outdoor creation monitoring in the management of coastal and marine

areas today. Specifically, this involves introductions to key manage-ment procedures and concepts, such as recreation ecology, carrying capacity, adaptive management, as well as management theory. The outcome is a greater conceptual background to and understanding of outdoor recreation monitoring as an important and integrated part of outdoor recreation management processes and procedures. The third part closes the chapter by further describing and discussing outdoor recreation monitoring as a concept. Emphasis is put on providing a more detailed introduction to outdoor recreation monitoring, both as a basic management activity and as an active research field. This work includes important epistemological and methodological consid-erations on outdoor recreation monitoring as well as an overview of international literature on the topic in order to examine the breadth of the research field.