This mobile workshop will take attendees to Cheasty Greenspace, a 43+ acre forest in one of Seattle’s highest equity priority zones, where the SPR Trails Team is mapping the trail system at Cheasty and throughout the City’s parks, forests, and green spaces.
Located in southeast Seattle, the Cheasty Greenspace is surrounded by some of the most diverse neighborhoods in the City. Devoted community members and organizations continue to improve access and opportunities to parks and greenspaces in a historically disadvantaged region. Through partnerships with Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR), communities have collaborated with staff in forest restoration, trail building, and natural area maintenance to create a safe and accessible place for the community so that everyone can access outdoor recreational activities, including hiking and mountain biking amid an urban landscape.
This mobile workshop will highlight SPR’s efforts to map its trail system using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. With the department’s continued work to break down institutional barriers through the advancement of equity, inclusion, and belonging, innovation through GIS technology enhances team collaboration, spatial data analytics, and data-driven decision-making departmentwide, tracking business operations and improving equitable outcomes in the distribution of resources and opportunities. GIS brings the latest Census and American Community Survey demographic data to interactive mobile and online maps, driving SPR teams to improve equity-driven goal setting, outreach strategies, and work prioritization of parklands and greenspaces within Seattle’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
At SPR, GIS is increasingly being utilized to geographically map the department’s park assets and track operational work, serving business units with many purposes, including maintenance management, work prioritization, planning, data analysis, and information access. Through the connection of Trimble’s Global Positioning System (GPS) locational signal enhancing hardware, the SPR Trails Team uses the latest GIS field mapping technology, ArcGIS Field Maps, on their mobile phones to walk and map trails onsite, a game changer in real-time mapping for staff interactivity and collaboration. Join SPR’s Trails Team and GIS Analyst for a walk through the Cheasty Greenspace: Mt. View forest. See the GIS tools in action at this mobile workshop, which includes a live demonstration and a chance to try the tools out yourself.
Support for this session is provided by The Knight Foundation.
