A ROLE FOR GOAL-ORIENTED AUTONOMOUS AGENTS IN MODELING PEOPLE ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS IN FOREST RECREATION

Increased demand by the public for diverse and quality recreation oppo rtunities has placed considerable pressure on the natural resource and its management. This problem is compounded by a general lack of under standing of interactions between people and forest recreation environm ents that result in wide variations in perceptions, expectations, and patterns of choice and use. Emerging technologies, such as distributed artificial intelligence, provide a mechanism to integrate advances in recreation research with a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based environment. Distributed artificial intelligence provides the foundat ion for a modeling system to simulate the interactions between recreat ors and their environment. Despite the work done by many researchers i n the development of object-oriented modeling and simulation languages , GIS, nonhuman agent design and simulations, no single system has bee n constructed to handle the complexity of goal-oriented autonomous hum an agents seeking recreational opportunities in natural environments. This paper describes a theoretical framework and a model for simulatin g hiker behavior in a natural environment using intelligent agents, di screte event simulation (DEVS) and GIS data. The results of hiker inte ractions are summarized to provide feedback on the implications for al ternative recreation management planning.