American Trails

Symposiums

Upcoming Webinars

January 28: Brownfields to Trails: Steps to Success
February 04: From Industrial Site to Trail Destination
February 11: The Catalytic Impact of Trails
February 18: Collective Impact and Sustainable Trails
February 25: Journeys North: A Thru-Hike of the Pacific Crest Trail
April 22: Effective Programs to Improve Access to and Use of Trails for Youth from Under-Resourced Communities
April 29: Assessing Trails: LiDAR Assisted Trail Topography Evaluation (LATTE)

Access to the Great Outdoors for All

A TRAILSNext™ presentation

Using the power of GIS mapping to strategically target development of recreation access and new land protection opportunities to address gap areas.

by Emmalee Dolfi, GIS Senior Project Manager, The Trust for Public Land

Related Document

Access to Great Outdoors for All

The Trust for Public Land seeks to create ready and equitable access to trails, parks, and open space for everyone across the country. The ParkServe platform and Access Impact Mapping (AIM) tools provide data to address issues around equitable access to these assets in cities and towns nationwide. The ParkServe platform provides users with nearly 130,000 park locations in roughly 14,000 municipalities around the country, with the ability to analyze current 10-minute walk access to those parks. Users can determine where future parks will provide the service to neighborhoods most in need.

AIM prioritizes the protection of new public lands and encourages recreational access improvements around the country by addressing broad recreation access needs and public lands access opportunities outside city limits. Using the power of Geographic Information System mapping, AIM helps to strategically target development of recreation access and new land protection opportunities to address gap areas.

Together these tools provide baseline information on demand for recreation access and the locations, type and use of nearby trails, parks and open space allowing users to gain insight into these community resources and enabling professionals to better understand and plan park systems.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will know how to access ParkServe and AIM tools.
Participants will learn how other communities have applied this information to inform decision making and advocacy for trails.
Participants will understand the connection between trail and park amenities, usage, and quality

About the Author

Emmalee Dolfi is the Senior Manager of Enterprise Data Systems for The Trust for Public Land. She oversees all things “10-minute walk” on the Research and Innovation team, including ParkServe and ParkScore, both of which map and analyze 10-minute walk park accessibility in cities and towns across the US. She also provides vision and strategy for automation by guiding the development of geospatial and statistical scripts and tools to support a variety of projects and initiatives.

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