While community quality-of-life indicators are gaining much needed
attention in both scholarly work and practice, their application in the
areas of parks, recreation and tourism management are not as well known.
The applicability of indicator systems for natural resource and natural
resource area management within the parks and recreation arena is very
high, including urban parks and recreation programs and their influence
on quality of life.
Tourism is also an area that needs much more work in terms of assessing
impacts as well as developing indicators for gauging progress in the
long term. All three areas are an integrated discipline and most
programs throughout the developed world are housed co-jointly. There are
several researchers across the globe who are conducting innovative work
in these areas. The editors feel that a volume on the topic will spur
additional interests as well as serve to lead the research efforts.