The Use of Voluntary GIS to Map Park and Trail Amenities

About the Program

Category: Parks and Recreation (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

Loudoun County maintains 29 parks and there are other parks that are owned and maintained by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, the National Park Service, not for profit organizations, the County’s towns, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. The public may not be aware of the amenities available in any given park, and mapping all of these assets is a massive undertaking beyond the resources of the County alone. In early 2013, an employee of AOL approached the County offering to provide volunteers for community service as part of that company’s Monster Help Day, a world-wide event encouraging volunteerism. The County suggested mapping the amenities along the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park (W&OD), a linear, multi-use rail-to-trail park that originates in the County and extends 45 miles to Alexandria, Virginia. The AOL volunteers fanned out along the trail on one day in late May and used their smartphones to map amenities, including recording GPS points, taking photos, and classifying amenities by type via a pick list. Their progress was immediately displayed on their phones from an ArcGIS Online application. In 2014 the AOL volunteers repeated the exercise, mapping the amenities in Claude Moore Park. In 2015 they will map Phil Bolen Park. This year (2015) the Loudoun County Trails Association (LOCOTA) has volunteered to extend the program County-wide. LOCOTA members include people interested in hiking, cycling, mountain biking and horseback riding. The data dictionary was developed in March of 2015 and field work will begin in the spring.