Covid-19's Effect on the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The first recorded case of Covid-19 in the United States was January 20, 2020. On March 15, 2020, states began implementing lockdowns.

As a result of these lockdowns our most visited National Park, the Great Smoky Mountains (GRSM), saw dramatically reduced visitation. This has provided the opportunity to see how reduced visitation impacts the local area, both environmentally and economically. 

Overall, this project was an exercise in transforming data from a variety of sources to best work with the intended program. While one expects a certain conclusion, I found that considering just the visitation variable is not adequate enough to track environmental changes. Visitation to the park, however, does impact the local economy. Sevier County, home to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, relies most on visitation to the area to prop up it's economy.

Included below is the final PowerPoint presentation, a repository showing the work done in Python and a Tableau dashboard allowing you to visualize these changes through time.