MPA recreational users’ KAP data can be analysed in various ways to inform MPA planning, monitoring and management. Analysis of most knowledge and attitude questions involves calculating percentages corresponding to each response (Navarro et al. 2021), but can be used to explore how several factors drive pro-environmental behaviour through statistical modelling (Arias & Sutton 2013, McNeill et al. 2018). It can be useful to conduct spatial analysis of MPA use patterns such as spatial plotting, kernel density or hotspot analysis (Koehn et al. 2013, Fagerholm et al. 2021). Economic revealed preference modelling can also be used to determine MPA recreational value and predict the impact associated with different MPA zoning arrangements (Gao & Hailu 2018, Navarro et al. 2022). Details on the analysis options, statistical approaches and management implications can be found in Appendix 6.
There are currently no fit-for-purpose repositories of marine social and economic data equivalent to those used for marine bio-physical data (e.g., GlobalArchive for fish annotations, https://globalarchive.org/). Repositories ensure data standards, enable discoverability, and comparisons of results (e.g., scaling multiple regional monitoring programs to develop national insights). Research is needed to understand the requirements of a marine social and economic data repository and scope how it would function in practice. In the meantime, we recommend detailed meta-data about MPA recreational users’ KAP surveys and sampling design be uploaded to the Australian Ocean Data Network (https://portal.aodn.org.au/), so that they are accessible to other researchers. To do this, researchers must include informed consent for sharing de-identified survey responses in human ethics agreements (see Appendix 5 for details).