Conservation Priorities for Open Space Recreation Access
Dates
Publication Date
2020
Time Period
2018
Citation
Warnell, K., 2020, Conservation Priorities for Open Space Recreation Access: U.S. Geological Survey ScienceBase, https://doi.org/10.21429/k9k5-fz91.
Summary
Publicly accessible open spaces provide valuable opportunities for people to exercise, play, socialize, and build community. People are more likely to use public open spaces that are close (ideally within walking distance) to their homes. To assess the spatial distribution of access to open space for recreation in the southeastern United States, we constructed an index of open space access based on the size of the largest publicly accessible open space within 10 miles of each point on the landscape, using three distance categories to represent whether people can reach the open spaces by walking (within 0.5 mile), via a short drive (within 3 miles), or via a longer drive (within 10 miles). Using the open space access index, we identified [...]
Summary
Publicly accessible open spaces provide valuable opportunities for people to exercise, play, socialize, and build community. People are more likely to use public open spaces that are close (ideally within walking distance) to their homes. To assess the spatial distribution of access to open space for recreation in the southeastern United States, we constructed an index of open space access based on the size of the largest publicly accessible open space within 10 miles of each point on the landscape, using three distance categories to represent whether people can reach the open spaces by walking (within 0.5 mile), via a short drive (within 3 miles), or via a longer drive (within 10 miles). Using the open space access index, we identified regional priority areas at the county and Census block group scale based on the number of people who would have increased access to open space (within the three distance categories) if new open space were created within those areas.
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OpenSpaceLandingPage.xml Original FGDC Metadata
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Purpose
The priority county and Census block group shapefiles can be used to identify where, at the regional level, new open space will provide the greatest benefit in terms of the number of people with increased access to open space. These can also be overlaid with other data sources at the appropriate scale, including other ecosystem service maps , to find areas where conservation would provide multiple benefits. When using these data, please keep in mind that they are designed for landscape-level assessments; due to inaccuracies in the national-scale input datasets, they should not be used to identify specific sites for open space creation without additional local data. This information can be used to identify possible target areas for land conservation to provide access to open space, but field validation of potential project areas is necessary to assess suitability.
