Protected areas worldwide are impacted by human activities within their boundaries. Despite having the highest level of protection in the US, wilderness areas are still vulnerable to ecological impacts. We compiled population, population growth rate, median travel time, wilderness size, wilderness proximity, relative accessibility, trail density and an amenity index to generate a Day-Use Vulnerability Index (DUVI) for 722 wilderness areas in the continuous US (CONUS). Using DUVI, we found that the Mount Timpanogos wilderness area in Utah, the Glacier View wilderness area in Washington, the J.N. Ding Darling wilderness area in Florida, the Philip Burton wilderness area in California and the Birkhead Mountains wilderness area in North Carolina were most likely to have ecological impacts from high day-use. Our findings provide a system for evaluating daily use of wilderness areas that could be paired with visitor counts in the future to improve predictions. Growing human populations and recreation are worldwide issues, suggesting that this framework could also be of interest to stakeholders outside the CONUS.

世界各地的保护区都受到其边界内人类活动的影响。尽管拥有美国最高水平的保护，荒野地区仍然容易受到生态影响。我们编制了人口、人口增长率、中位旅行时间、荒野面积、荒野邻近度、相对可达性、步道密度和便利指数，以生成美国本土 (CONUS) 722 个荒野地区的日间使用脆弱性指数 (DUVI)。使用 DUVI，我们发现犹他州的 Mount Timpanogos 荒野地区、华盛顿州的 Glacier View 荒野地区、佛罗里达州的 JN Ding Darling 荒野地区、加利福尼亚州的 Philip Burton 荒野地区和北卡罗来纳州的 Birkhead Mountains 荒野地区最有可能因高日使用而产生生态影响。我们的研究结果提供了一个评估荒野地区日常使用情况的系统，该系统可以与未来的游客数量相结合，以改进预测。不断增长的人口和娱乐是世界性问题，这表明该框架也可能引起美国本土以外的利益相关者的兴趣。