Visitor perception of lake water quality in two highly managed urban lakes in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Rattachement africain : us, pl. Niveau de preuve : code pays fourni par la source.
Le résumé fourni par la source
Urban lakes provide important recreational and aesthetic benefits but often require intensive management to restore and maintain water quality. However, if there are mismatches between measured and perceived water quality, improvements may go unnoticed. While conventional water quality indicators such as chlorophyll a and Secchi depth are routinely monitored, it remains unclear how well these biophysical metrics align with public perceptions. We conducted a survey to measure visitors’ perceptions of water quality at two highly visited urban lakes in Saint Paul, Minnesota—Como Lake, a shallow eutrophic lake undergoing intensive in-lake management, and Lake Phalen, a deeper mesotrophic lake with fewer recent interventions. Across three years (2022–2024), we recruited over 800 survey respondents via signage that encouraged volunteers to participate by exchanging text-messages with a custom chatbot. Comparing long-term open water measurements with visitors’ water quality scores showed mixed relationships with chlorophyll a levels. Visitor perception scores were lower for eutrophic Como Lake, but this difference was small relative to the four-fold difference in chlorophyll a concentrations between the lakes. Open-ended responses suggest that visitors base their evaluations on a combination of visual cues such as water clarity, trash, and aquatic vegetation. These findings underscore the complexity of human–lake interactions and suggest that perception of ecological conditions may be informed by additional factors including expectations, communication, and lake-specific context. Incorporating visitor perception into lake monitoring and management may help align restoration goals with visitor experiences in urban settings.
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Le contrôle bibliographique ouvert
DOI retrouvé dans Crossref DOI retrouvé ; titre concordant.
- Titre Crossref
- Visitor perception of lake water quality in two highly managed urban lakes in Saint Paul, Minnesota
- Date Crossref
- 23/03/2026
- Éditeur
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC
- Type
- journal-article
Ce recoupement confirme des métadonnées liées au DOI. Il ne confirme ni la méthode ni les conclusions de l’étude, et il ne compte pas comme une seconde source scientifique indépendante.
Où se fait cette recherche
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University of St. Thomas - Minnesota pays non établi dans la noticeUniversité ou école supérieure
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University of Minnesota Department of Ecology pays non établi dans la noticeUniversité ou école supérieure
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Saint Anthony College of Nursing pays non établi dans la noticeUniversité ou école supérieure
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Minnesota Department of Natural Resources pays non établi dans la noticeOrganisme public
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Institute of Public Affairs pays non établi dans la noticeOrganisation à but non lucratif
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University of Washington eScience Institute pays non établi dans la noticeUniversité ou école supérieure
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University of Saint Thomas Department of Biology pays non établi dans la noticeUniversité ou école supérieure
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Humphrey School of Public Affairs pays non établi dans la noticeUniversité ou école supérieure
University of St. Thomas - Minnesota, Department of Ecology — University of Minnesota et Saint Anthony College of Nursing, avec 5 autres affiliations.
Une affiliation ne permet pas de déduire la nationalité d’un auteur.