WALKABILITY
METHODS
MAP 1 (POPULATION MAP)
The first map we chose to create was a population distribution map of the City of North Vancouver’s residents. We choose to depict this measurement as a choropleth map as it provides an easy way to visualize how population counts varies within the city, where darker shades of blue represented higher population counts. In order to create this map, data from the 2006 Census as well as data provided by the City were used. The following layers were included in the final map:
-
Parks and trails in the City of North Vancouver
-
Neighbourhood boundaries
-
Population count of residents by dissemination area*
*dissemination areas are the smallest census area units created by Census Canada where demographic data are available
By depicting the geographic distribution of North Vancouver's residents onto a visual map, we can now easily see which areas of the City would have a greater impact to its residents if our recommendations were to be implemented. In other words, by improving parks that more accessible by the general public (i.e. parks within heavily-populated areas), these changes would have a greater impact on the City's residents.
In order to develop this map, I had to tailor the DA layer from Lab 3 as it depicted all of BC whereas we were only interested in the DAs located within the City of North Vancouver. The steps were as follows: ‘Selection’ → ‘Select by Location’. Then I selected the ‘BC_DA’ layer as the target layer and ‘NeighbourhoodBoundaries’ (from the data provided by the City of North Vancouver) as the source layer. The selection was then exported to a new layer and re-named to ‘North Van DAs’.
MAP 2 (AMENITIES MAP):
The key amenities map used data from the City of North Vancouver data files provided to Simon Fraser University (SFU), amenities information from the City of North Vancouver public webpage, and information collected during a field analysis trip done on November 2nd, 2016 by members of this group. The combination of this information provided accurate information on the amenities available in each park and/or greenspace. The following factors were mapped:
-
The presence of a trail intended for visitor walking within the park
-
The presence of a playground or sports field intended for youth physical activity within the park
-
The availability of park maintained washrooms for visitor use within the park
-
The availability of picnic areas for visitor use within the park
The purpose of this map was to generate a visual that could be analyzed to make recommendations for changes within the park to make the parks more attractive for visitors, with the assumption that increased visits to the park would result in more residents walking while there. Developing the map involved selecting features by attribute from the Parks data file (from the City of North Vancouver data) that accounted for each of the features (trails, playground/sports field/ washrooms, picnic areas), and exporting each file to create four new layers. Each of these layers was then symbolized accordingly. Label features were used to identify each park, to provide visual location of where each park is located.
MAP 3 (PROXIMITY MAP):
Data used in this map was extracted from the file of the City of North Vancouver, provided to SFU. Tools in ArcGIS that were used to generate this map were based on Lab 4 (Proximity and Density maps) from the first part of HSCI 424 course.
First, both of residential areas and parks polygons were converted to points using Feature to Point Tool under ArcToolBox → Data Management Tools → Features → Feature to Point. This step allows the generation of proximity distances that link residential areas to parks.
To generate proximity distances, two of Network Analyst Tools were used; Add Locations and Make Closest Facility Layer. The Closest Facility layer was obtained from Lab 4 data files.
In addition, parks in the City of North Vancouver were displayed on this map based on their area. This information was obtained from Land Use file, which was narrowed down to include parks land use only. Condensing land use file to include parks only was done by using Selection by Attributes, in which parks land use were selected to create a new layer that includes parks land use only.
The information about park area was part of the original land use file, so no further calculations were needed to generate the numbers. The same method of Selection by Attribute was used to isolate residential land use to create a residential land use layer.