Olden, Julian DFricke, Rachel2025-10-022025-10-022025-10-022025Fricke_washington_0250E_28698.pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/1773/54026Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2025Humans benefit from water resources by deriving cultural ecosystem services (CES) such as numerous types of recreation (e.g., fishing, boating, swimming), improved mental health, and artistic inspiration. However, we also pose a significant risk to waterbodies by altering water chemistry, introducing invasive species, and degrading habitat quality. Thus, understanding human activity on freshwaters is critical for preserving not only aquatic ecosystems, but also the benefits we gain from them. Traditionally, human activity on waterbodies across time and space is inferred from sparsely conducted surveys that provide data with limited spatiotemporal scope. Volunteered geographic information (VGI) – user-generated, geotagged metadata from posts on mobile device applications – is a promising data source to examine human activity over broad scales of space and time.Here, I show how technological innovations – particularly VGI – can be leveraged to support management and conservation of freshwaters. First, I offer a review of innovative technologies with applications for invasive species management related to pathway intervention, spread prevention, impact mitigation, and public engagement. I also explore challenges and opportunities for successful integration of emerging technologies into invasive species management, focusing on pipelines that enable practitioners to integrate tools into practice while recognizing logistic and financial constraints (Chapter 2). Next, I model visitation at lakes from multiple VGI sources to demonstrate that these data reflect empirical visitation. I also show that diverse VGI sources are likely to characterize the broad diversity of reasons motivating people to interact with nature (Chapter 3). My fourth chapter demonstrates the value of intentionally surveying waterbody visitors to identify their activities and desired amenities, thus informing the support of these activities across urban blue-green spaces. Improved access to close-to-home waterbodies and adjacent green spaces is fundamental to helping close the nature gap in urban environments where people of color, families with children, and low-income communities are most likely to be deprived of the benefits that nature provides (Chapter 4). Lastly, my fifth chapter visualizes and quantifies connections between waterbodies across the Western US in terms of the magnitude, direction and timing of human movements to identify potential invasion hubs. Identification of specific waterbodies at highest risk of invasive species introductions will allow state resource management partners to prioritize waterbody locations for preventative measures such as educational signage, boat inspection stations, and gear cleaning services (Chapter 5). Collectively, my research demonstrates the value of emerging technologies for informing freshwater conservation and management, as well as the integralness of quality empirical data for validating big data methods.application/pdfen-USCC BYecosystem servicesinvasive specieslakesnetworksrecreational sciencevolunteered geographic informationEcologySocial researchWater resources managementFisheriesThesis