The Land and People Lab

Mapping & Spatial Analysis

The geospatial team within the Lab supports TPL field teams and external partners across the country to influence policy and practice, making the case for parks and open space funding and creation in the highest priority places for the people who need them the most. We are experts in using data regarding Equity, Health, Climate, and Community to determine where parks, trails, schoolyards, and land protection are most needed.

How We Can Help

Decision-Support Tools

Our decision-support tools can house hundreds of datasets in an easy-to-use interface. We combine data using a prioritization framework to portray where green infrastructure, parks, trails, schoolyards, or land protection is needed most. Most DSTs are down to the parcel level!

Spatial Analysis

We are experts in spatial analysis – you dream it up, we can do it. Our expertise spans across health, equity, climate, wildlife, infrastructure, and of course, parks and land protection. We can combine datasets into robust analyses at any scale – from the whole country down to individual parcels. Check out an example of our robust analyses, the Colorado Recreation Access Map.

Dashboard interface of the Washington Healthy Parks Explorer showing health, community, environmental risks, people and nature data, and a map of Washington state with park access statistics.

Quick Web-based Data Viewers

In need of a simple interactive data viewer, quickly? We can put together existing datasets in a user-friendly web data viewer with beautiful cartography. Need to prioritize where to work or make the case to funders? We can pull together datasets in a prioritization framework that captures your interests and display it in this interface to share widely! Our Nature Near Schools tool is a good example here.

Story Maps and Dashboards

The Geospatial team utilizes Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform to tell dynamic, stories of TPL’s work. We collaborate with partners to craft the narrative and content (maps, images, videos, and more) that goes into story map and dashboard applications. We use story maps as a non-technical and engaging way to tell the story of a project and to get the local community involved in the effort. Macon, Georgia’s powerful story of a community coming together to save historic places is elegantly displayed in our story map here.

Map of the Klamath Basin in Northern California and Southern Oregon, showing rivers, towns, reservations, and irrigation project areas.

Beautiful Cartography

We have extensive experience using GIS to create formal static maps for many purposes and many scales (from a small land protection project in Los Angeles, to a trail planning project in Florida, to a regional planning analysis in Maine, as well as national/U.S. maps). We work with our staff and/or external partners to create maps that tell the various stories of efforts to protect land and create parks where they are needed most.

Screenshot of the Conservation Almanac website showing a header, navigation menu, and three informational sections about land conservation in the United States.

National Databases

We created and are maintaining 4 national authoritative databases: ParkServe urban parks database, National Conservation Easement Database, Conservation Almanac, and the national Urban Heat Island raster.