This article is written by Clement Lau, departmental facilities planner, County of Los Angeles. This article is one of the entrants in Apolitical's 2020 American public servant writing competition.

What better place is there than a park on a sunny day?

We all need parks. After all, parks are essential infrastructure that contribute significantly to the quality of life in our communities. They offer environmental, social and other benefits beyond park boundaries, such as cooling our neighbourhoods, improving physical and mental health, and providing places where families and friends can relax and socialise.

Parks, like many other public services, are rarely adequately funded. And in many cities, there are disparities in access to parks and the distribution of funding to create, operate and maintain these community assets. As such, there is a need to strategically consider where the limited public funding is prioritised and used. The best way to do that is through an approach that is based on data, metrics and robust public input.

Where are new parks most needed? What types of park amenities does a community need more of? Which sports are most popular in a city or neighbourhood? How many residents are within a half a mile of a park? If a new park is built at a certain location, how many more residents would be able to walk to it?

These are the types of questions that decision-makers are increasingly asking to make informed decisions. To answer them, park planners must collect and analyse a variety of data.

Mapping LA

While every parks department knows where its facilities are, not all park agencies maintain a geographic information system (GIS) to capture, store, analyse, manage and present parks and related data. GIS is a powerful tool that can display many different types and layers of data on a single map, such as parks, trees, streets and buildings, enabling us to more easily see, understand and analyse patterns and relationships. One of the biggest benefits of having GIS is that it allows us to see where the greatest needs for parks are. Without GIS, we would be doing park planning blind.

With constrained budgets, GIS may seem like a luxury rather than a necessity for some parks departments. But if an agency is serious about doing data-driven planning and advancing park equity, it should quickly realise that GIS is an indispensable tool.

Our ultimate goal is not only to produce pretty maps, it is about providing sound analysis that facilitates informed park planning, decision-making and resource allocation that benefit the communities we serve

As an example, let’s take a look at the Los Angeles County department of parks and recreation (DPR), where I work as a park planner. Park planning is challenging in Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the US, with more than ten million residents, and is diverse in every way possible, including its geography, the languages spoken, and the race/ethnic makeup of its population.

It was not that long ago that DPR was mostly using GIS just to produce maps to show where its parks, multi-use trails and other recreational facilities were located across this sprawling region consisting of urban, suburban and rural communities. We did not have anyone fully dedicated to GIS, but a handful of staff taught themselves to use the system through trial and error.

Help wanted

Things changed about five years ago with the addition of a full-time GIS analyst at DPR. For the first time in our history, we now have a colleague who can represent our interests in countywide spatial analysis and data-sharing efforts, helping to ensure that we have access to the latest resources such as updated aerial imagery, which is critical to our work. There was, however, still a challenge to overcome: the department had a rather limited inventory of parks and trails data.

This database expanded significantly in 2016 when my department completed the first-ever Los Angeles countywide parks and recreation needs assessment, along with various other park and trails master plans. To better understand and spotlight the disparities in access to parks and funding for parks, DPR leaders ensured that the parks needs assessment was equity-focused and identified the communities with very high or high park need — something that had never been done before.

There is more to park planning than meets the eye

Knowing where these underserved areas are helps my department, decision-makers, cities, funders and others to focus and prioritise resources to specifically address park inequities. The level of park need was determined based on population density and a suite of parks metrics, including park area, access, pressure, condition and amenities.

The parks needs assessment was a historic and significant undertaking to engage cities and unincorporated communities within the county in a collaborative process to gather data and input to address data gaps and guide future decision-making on parks. Specifically, we now have answers to these questions:

  • How many acres of parkland are there by type (local, regional, open space, etc.)?
  • How many parks are there countywide by type?
  • What amenities are at each park?
  • What is the physical condition (good, fair, poor) of each amenity at each park?
  • What is the level of park need in each community?
  • What are the top ten requests for parks and/or amenities in each community?
  • What are the deferred maintenance and other needs of regional park facilities and beaches?

A tool for all

We went on to develop an internal user-friendly, web-based mapping and analysis tool, the park planning viewer. This effectively democratised GIS at DPR, enabling any staff to visualise and analyse parks data in relation to other layers of information, such as income, race/ethnicity, and various healthy indicators, and quickly prepare maps at their own computers.

This tool is cost-effective because it saves the department from having to purchase individual GIS software licenses for all staff, and encourages all to think spatially, analytically and comprehensively by having easy access to a variety of data. It has resulted in a major efficiency as well. With the tool, staff members are able to quickly obtain information that previously could only be provided by the GIS analyst. This frees him up to take on more complicated projects that require the full power and capabilities of desktop GIS software.

We need to carry out this important work thoughtfully, creatively, strategically and collaboratively through a data-driven approach using GIS

We recently embarked on our Parks Needs Assessment 2.0. This effort is about furthering the use of data collected from the 2016 Parks Needs Assessment in combination with other layers of information to aid decision-making. Specifically, we have completed analyses to identify areas with the greatest need for sports facilities, like baseball fields, basketball courts, swimming pools, soccer fields and tennis courts, based on four key variables:

  • level of park need per the parks needs assessment
  • percentage of youth population
  • market potential index, which is an indicator of a sport’s popularity
  • existing availability of each amenity in a community

Not only do the results of these analyses guide our work, but they can also help cities and other organisations, such as the foundations of professional sports teams, to more objectively decide where to invest in the development of sports facilities for residents, especially youths. For instance, if we find that a neighbourhood has a need for a new park and we know that soccer is the most popular sport there, we make sure that they get a new mini-pitch for soccer and not another tennis court, of which there are already several in the area that are often unused or underused.

We also use GIS to determine the likely service area of a proposed park, including estimating the number of residents the park would serve. Unlike prior analyses, which were more theoretical by drawing a perfect circle to show the half-mile service radius around a local park, DPR employs the network analysis tool to show actual walking distance by factoring in the street network and physical barriers, such as freeways and railroad tracks.

There is more to park planning than meets the eye. We need to carry out this important work thoughtfully, creatively, strategically and collaboratively through a data-driven approach using GIS. But merely having the tool is not enough. An agency must also have the leadership, vision, a comprehensive and robust database, and a dedicated staff to maintain and further its use of GIS.

Our ultimate goal is not only to produce pretty maps, it is about providing sound analysis that facilitates informed park planning, decision-making and resource allocation that benefit the communities we serve. — Clement Lau

(Picture Credit: Death to the stock photo)

Clement Lau, AICP, DPPD, is a departmental facilities planner with the Los Angeles County department of parks and recreation.