Reinventing Mountain Settlements
Reinventing Mountain Settlements: A GIS Model for Identifying Potential Ski Towns in the U.S. Rocky Mountains
(Version 4/1/08)
Anonymous
ABSTRACT: Former mining and ranching settlements in the U.S. Rocky Mountains frequently seek to reinvent themselves as the industries that created them have declined. Redevelopment as ski resorts is a common strategy but this approach, if undertaken without careful advanced planning, can have negative consequences, damaging fragile alpine environments, overwhelming social and housing services and distorting local economies. This study develops a GIS-based model that follows a systematic sequential elimination procedure to identify those settlements most vulnerable to ski resort development by evaluating all places in the Rocky Mountains in terms of the location criteria of existing ski areas. Results show that while no single potential settlement is an obvious candidate for development by the ski industry, a number of places are vulnerable in a way that can be systematically measured and evaluated. Moreover, the methodology used can be applied to additional areas subject to winter sports growth world-wide.