Introduction
Where are Wisconsin's Ideal Campgrounds?
For my mini-final project, I wanted to find the best campgrounds in Wisconsin based on three criteria; proximity to hiking trails (10mi) and grocery stores (20mi), and in watersheds with minimal impaired waters. If I had more detailed information about Wisconsin campgrounds, I would add on-site showers, electric sites, and proximity to biking trails as criteria.
These criteria maximize my camping experience. Hiking trails provide the daily activities I enjoy. I can't store a week's worth of food in a single cooler, so a nearby grocery store is important. Lakes and rivers provide beauty and a place to swim, but if the waterways are impaired they may be green and ugly, and unsafe to swim in. I do not want to spend my vacation in an area where I can't enjoy the water.
I am the main audience of this map, as campground criteria are based on my personal desires. However, anyone who shares these desires may find value in my map and it results.
These criteria maximize my camping experience. Hiking trails provide the daily activities I enjoy. I can't store a week's worth of food in a single cooler, so a nearby grocery store is important. Lakes and rivers provide beauty and a place to swim, but if the waterways are impaired they may be green and ugly, and unsafe to swim in. I do not want to spend my vacation in an area where I can't enjoy the water.
I am the main audience of this map, as campground criteria are based on my personal desires. However, anyone who shares these desires may find value in my map and it results.
Data Sources
To answer my question and meet my criteria, I needed information about Wisconsin hiking trails, grocery stores, watersheds, impaired waters, and campgrounds. All of the data I used comes from the Wisconsin DNR 2014 Data Base and the ESRI 2013 USA data. These sources do not include information about hiking trails or grocery stores, however they did include information about parks and cities. In my experience, I've found that County, State, and National Parks and Forest lands include hiking trails, so I used that information as a proxy for hiking trails. Additionally, once a city reaches a population of about 1,000-5,000 people, a grocery store springs up to serve the population. So I used city population as a proxy for grocery store.
Data Concerns
By using proxy for hiking trails and grocery stores, I can not be sure that there actually is a hiking trail in the nearby national forest or a Supervalu in the local town. Additionally, the campground shapefile that I used was most recently updated in 2002 - over 10 years ago. Some of the campground names are missing, and the campground in my hometown is missing entirely. The file really should be updated to reflect any campgrounds that are new or have been closed down.
Methods
 |
| Figure 1: Data Flow Model |
Clean Watersheds
To find the cleanest watersheds with few or no impairments, I conducted four summarized spatial joins between "Watersheds" and each of four shapefiles detailing Wisconsin's impaired waterways. Then I added and calculated a field that summed each of the four count fields produced. I queried for and exported watersheds with 0-2 impaired waterways to produce the shapefile "Clean Water."
Hiking Trails
"Park.Dtl" includes park information across the United States, and would be much to large to work, so I needed to clip it. Additionally, while I was looking for campgrounds in Wisconsin, I don't mind driving 10 miles across the Wisconsin border into Michigan and enjoying the hiking trails they have to offer. I created a very random polygon shapefile around Wisconsin including the states adjacent to it to account for this ("Clip to Area"). Then I queried for County, State, and National Parks, and added a 10 mile buffer to create "Park Buff." This was clipped to "Wisconsin" creating "Wi Park Area."
Grocery Stores
Similar to hiking trails, "Cities.Dtl" had nationwide data so I clipped it to "Clip to Area." Then I queried for cites with a population of 1000-5000 people and added a 20 mile buffer. I clipped this area to "Wisconsin" to create "Wi Small Town Area."
Bringing it all Together
An intersection between "Clean Water," "Wi Park Area," and "Wi Small Town Area" provided plots of land that met all three criteria, "Meets Criteria." A simple clip of "Wi Campgrounds" to "Meets Criteria" produces a shapefile of the "Best Wi Campgrounds."
Results
 |
| Figure 2: Ideal Wisconsin Campground Map |
Figure 2 displays Wisconsin's ideal campgrounds based on my criteria. Campgrounds are symbolized by the black box with a white tent inside. The grey dots represent the small towns were a grocery store could be found. The areas with the cross hatching notes the County, State, and National Parks and Forest Lands in and around Wisconsin. Watershed health is symbolized by color, with green watersheds being the healthiest and red watersheds containing the most impaired waterways. Notice how the ideal campgrounds are only located in the deep green watersheds.
Ada Lake Campgrounds, Bagley Rapids Campground, Boulder Lake Campground, Camp Forest Spring, Camp Tekawitha, Camp Waubeck, Chipmunk Campground, Dells Camp, Eastwood Campground, Franklin Lake Campground, Lake of the Dells Campground, Lost Lake Campground, Purdue Univ. Forestry Camp, Richardson Lake Campground, Southfork Campground and RV Park, Spearhead Point Campground, Stevens Lake Campground, Turtle Creek Campsite, and Winsor Dam Campground
Ideal Campgrounds
Ada Lake Campgrounds, Bagley Rapids Campground, Boulder Lake Campground, Camp Forest Spring, Camp Tekawitha, Camp Waubeck, Chipmunk Campground, Dells Camp, Eastwood Campground, Franklin Lake Campground, Lake of the Dells Campground, Lost Lake Campground, Purdue Univ. Forestry Camp, Richardson Lake Campground, Southfork Campground and RV Park, Spearhead Point Campground, Stevens Lake Campground, Turtle Creek Campsite, and Winsor Dam CampgroundEvaluation
Overall I really enjoyed this project. I selected a question that was important to me and may actually check out some of the campgrounds on the list. This project allowed me the freedom and challenge to choose my own criteria and parameters. There were infinite criteria options and methods available to select the best campgrounds that could drastically alter the results. For example, by including parks outside of Wisconsin in the selection process a few more campgrounds made the list. This gave me a greater appreciation for geographers making difficult decisions that shapes how people read data.If I did this again, I would mine the internet for a more updated campground shapfile as described in Data Sources. I would also remove the city population less than 5000 restriction to include all cities greater than 1000 because they will definitely include a grocery store. Or I find a shapefile including the actual locations of grocery stores. This minor tweak will allow more campgrounds to be included in the final list.
