Toward a valid disc golf course design algorithm: Using landscape ecology and geographic information systems (GIS) to assess recreation facilities' sites

The scope of this thesis is threefold: (1) This project synthesized the substantive disc golf literature and the concepts of landscape ecology and forest recreation management to create an algorithm which enables the development of disc golf courses by recreation planners and managers. The lexicon of landscape ecology provides a conceptual framework absent in disc golf course design that promotes landscape understanding and advantageous design. (2) This project also has expanded recreational opportunity in Nacogdoches, Texas, by creating a disc golf course at Pecan Acres Park; and (3) Finally, the project used the algorithm to design another course that may be developed at Hunt's Woods on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus in Nacogdoches, Texas.;The algorithm's efficacy was tested on both the developed Pecan Acres Park course and the prospective Hunt's Woods course. The application of these two case studies demonstrate the algorithm's practicality on landscapes with dissimilar structure.