Students' Choice

What is its purpose?

This site's purpose is to show the nation's parks and provide context to questions about the nation's health, status, equity, and climate conditions within the context of park accessibility. The visualization strives to educate users on the effect that access to parks has on quality of life.

What is the data?

The data is location data indicating the location of parks, park types, and amenities. There is also data about air and heat conditions, waterways, school and other public resource locations, health data (in the form of grades, not conditions), income data, demographic (race/ethnicity, age, and income) data, population data, and a ParkScore Index (provided by Parkserve).

Who are the users that this visualization was made for?

The users that this visualization was made for are people who are curious about parks and their role in day-to-day life and people who are advocates for parks and park access.

What questions do people want to ask?

Some questions that can be asked are:

• How much of the land around me is dedicated to parks?

• How does the health of my community or region fare? Are people healthier if they are closer to parks?

• Are parks easily accessible in [area]?

• What is the quality of the air like in a certain region?

• What are the demographics of this area?

How can they find the answers with this tool?

• By viewing the map with the Parks box checked

• By viewing the map and clicking on "Health" and checking either mental or physical

• By checking the "10 minute walk service areas" box under "Park access"

• By checking the "pollution - respiratory" option under the Climate section

• By viewing the information below the map

What works?

The map is easy to interpret, it takes up the entire screen, it is easy to navigate, and the controls are self explanatory. the map is also zoomable, navigable, and responsive. Each filter works and the divergent color schemes make it easy to identify what is being viewed.

What needs improvement?

I think the color that is used to cover the regions in which people are 10 minutes or less away from a park is too light. On some screens, it's hard to tell. Maybe making it just a bit darker can make the vacant areas more easily to spot.

I would like to overlap the mental health and physical health data. This is not possible because the same color palette is being used so it becomes difficult to discern the two (if both appear at all).