August 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 16

RESEARCH
Getting to Know NRPA's
Data and Mapping Resource
Library
By Austin Barrett
F
rom the director's desk to the programmer's activity guide, park
and recreation professionals regularly rely on actionable data
to make informed decisions. Whether an agency is developing
a new master plan, determining what new programs to offer or
seeking to understand their community's characteristics a little better, access
to relevant data will strengthen these initiatives.
NRPA offers a variety of data
tools and research reports to meet
this need. Check out Park Metrics
(nrpa.org/ParkMetrics) to
benchmark your agency's parks,
programming and budgetary information
compared to peer agencies.
NRPA also publishes research reports
you can use to improve operations,
gain more funding support
and better serve your community
(nrpa.org/Research). However,
you likely still have data needs that
extend beyond these great resources.
That's where NRPA's Data
and Mapping Resource
Library
(tinyurl.com/2zhp969m) comes in.
The internet is replete with publicly
accessible data and mapping
tools. These tools, often developed
by government agencies, nonprofits
or universities, cover a variety
of topics but might be challenging
for a busy professional to find and
use. To make things easier, NRPA
staff have compiled more than 50
free data and mapping resources to
assist your agency in broadening its
impact on the community and operating
more efficiently. From the
county level to your local neighborhood,
these public resources serve
16 Parks & Recreation | A UGUS T 2 0 2 3
as a starting point for exploring data
on a variety of categories, including
demographics, health and wellness,
environmental resiliency and other
park-specific information.
The library includes a short summary
of each data tool and the level
of geographic detail each tool provides
(county,
topics, such as: environcity,
census tract).
The resources also are filterable by
categories (listed above) or more
specific
mental quality, health equity/access
and public safety. Using the filters,
you quickly can hone in on resources
that are of most interest to you.
Let's look at a few scenarios that
show how these data resources
might be useful to a park and recreation
professional:
1
Establishing new programming
for children: Your agency serves
a large population and geographic
area. As a recreation programmer,
you are tasked with developing new
youth programming that will serve
areas most in need of investment.
The Childhood Opportunity Index
(tinyurl.com/3f5nsn3s) can help
you identify neighborhoods in your
jurisdiction where children currently
have unequal access to opportu|
PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
nity. These data may be helpful in
determining where to provide this
new youth programming.
2
Understanding your community's
characteristics: Imagine
this: you just took a new job as a
director at a new agency. You have
spent the first few weeks meeting
with your new colleagues and engaging
with as many community
members as you can. However,
some basic questions about the
people and places remain. With
just a few clicks, SparkMap's Community
Assessment Tool (tinyurl.
com/9r6ksdap) can help you generate
detailed reports about your new
community and its characteristics.
3
Planning for the impacts of
climate change: If your agency
wants to understand how climate
change might impact your existing
inventory of parks and facilities
and how to
mitigate
long-term
impacts on new capital projects,
you
can access Risk
Factor
(tinyurl.com/3fzdkws8). This tool
allows you to view the likelihood
and severity of risk from flooding,
wildfire, heat and wind both today
and in 30 years as a result of a
changing climate. You can view
these risks for specific addresses or
broader geographies.
These are just three of the 50
resources hosted in the Data and
Mapping Resource Library. I encourage
you to check out the library
for yourself. If you have a
question or suggestion about the
Data and Mapping Resource Library,
we'd love to hear from you!
Please contact NRPA's Evaluation
Department at NRPAEval@
nrpa.org.
Austin Barrett is Senior Evaluation
Manager at NRPA (abarrett@nrpa.org).
http://www.nrpa.org/ParkMetrics http://www.nrpa.org/Research http://tinyurl.com/3fzdkws8 http://tinyurl.com/2zhp969m http://NRPAEval@nrpa.org http://tinyurl.com/3f5nsn3s http://NRPAEval@nrpa.org
August 2023 - Parks & Recreation

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