What are you required to do?

To develop this skill in this unit, you are required to undertake a systematic quantitative literature review on a selected topic, following the approach developed by Dr Catherine Pickering at Griffith University. This review will identify when and who did the research, geographical location where the research was conducted, types of methods used and variables measured. You will be required to extract and assess the major themes covered by this literature, drawing attention to any debates and inconsistencies in findings, and will identify knowledge gaps for this topic. Your literature review should be well organised, with an ‘introduction’ component that gives the context and clearly articulates the aims of the review. The ‘body’ of the review will contain your ‘results’ and ‘discussion’, summarising the literature base, and the main themes covered by this literature. This component will be by far the longest part of the literature review. The literature review should end with a ‘conclusion’ component that summarizes the results of the review. 2000 words, APA referencing

You will be conducting your review on a topic related to recreational trails. One of the goals of the City of Albany, located 400km south of Perth in the Great Southern Region, is to become a World Class Trail Tourism Hub (TTH). To facilitate this, the City has developed the ‘City of Albany Trails Hub Strategy 2015 – 2025’. In addition, the Great Southern Centre for Outdoor Recreation Excellence (GSCORE), a not-for-profit organisation established to support the growth of outdoor recreation in the Great Southern region, has spearheaded the development of the ‘Regional Trails Master Plan’. This document identifies a ten-year program of trail infrastructure development for the Great Southern region, and focuses on all types of trails, including terrestrial trails (e.g. walking, cycling, horse-riding, off-road vehicles) and aquatic trails (e.g. snorkelling, paddling). To assist with the implementation of this plan, GSCORE requires more information. You will be assisting the organisation by conducting a systematic quantitative literature review on ONE of the following topics:

Environmental and social impacts of mountain biking on recreational trails (chosen)

Environmental and social impacts of horseback riding on recreational trails

Development and management of trails along old or disused railway lines/tracks (‘rail trails’)

Development and management of paddle (aquatic) trails