An urban park information system using remote sensing and GIS...

Mirva Travland et. al.

ISSN 1911-581428Prairie Perspectives: Geographical Essays 2017, 19: 28–34

An urban park information system

An urban park information system using remote sensing and GIS techniques: A case study of Wakamow Valley, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Mirva TravlandDepartment of Geomatics and Surveying Engineering Technology, Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Moose Jaw Campus, Saskatchewan

Abdul RaoufDepartment of Geomatics and Surveying Engineering Technology, Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Moose Jaw Campus, Saskatchewan

Tayyab Ikram ShahCollege of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon

This research explored the feasibility of remote sensing and GIS techniques to demonstrate their potential for identifying and classifying park/conservation area facilities with special emphasis on the classification of a trail system, and further to develop an information system for efficient management and improvement of park facilities. The study focused on the Wakamow Valley, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Land-cover/land-use information was extracted from high resolution aerial photographs from 2008 and 2014 and classified into bank, grassland, and tree covered areas. A trail system was also extracted from the same images and classified for walkability based on surface type and trail width. Environmental effects, excursions, and recreational activities can cause irreversible damage to park facilities and need to be monitored on a regular basis so that preventive maintenance can be initiated on time. Changes to the trails between 2008 and 2014 were recorded. It was observed that the Moose Jaw River is causing soil erosion along its banks resulting in the collapse of a portion of the Trans Canada Trail. Identification of areas under stress provides important information for effective management of park facilities. This information can be stored digitally using GIS techniques and can help to reduce overall management costs. Keywords: remote sensing, Saskatchewan, conservation areas, Trans Canada Trail, GIS

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution, andreproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Correspondence to: Abdul Raouf, Department of Geomatics and Surveying Engineering Technology, Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Moose Jaw Campus, Moose Jaw SK S6H 4R4 Email: [email protected]

Increasing interest in outdoor activities and tourism is causing additional pressure on recreational facilities. Thus managers and planners of such facilities are confronted with the diffi-culty of achieving a balance between preservation, sustainabil-ity, and future development of new attractions (Papageorgiou & Brotherton, 1999). The World Tourism Organization (WTO) has emphasized the need for careful planning, management, and continuous monitoring of protected and conservation areas to

ensure the long-term sustainability of tourism operations within these areas (World Tourism Organization, 2005). An absence of an efficient and effective information system can contribute to the degradation of these areas and to the reduction of tourist ac-tivities (Salerno et al., 2013). An integrated use of remote sens-ing and GIS technologies can provide a cost-effective solution to this problem and is explored in this study.

Parks and recreation services are an important function of government in all developed nations. Park organizations have

Introduction




recently become more involved with the promotion of physical activities leading to healthy lifestyles. Such activities while be-ing a source of leisure and enjoyment, can help to reduce stress and be promoted as preventive measures for stress-related dis-eases. Involvement in such physical activities requires intrinsic motivation. The process of selecting leisure goals and over-coming constraints to perform an activity depends on personal choices and availability of the desired facilities. If these facili-ties are properly managed, participants can exhibit an increased commitment to their desired activity (Godbey, Caldwell, Floyd, & Payne, 2005). Ethnic and cultural background can also play a role in the selection of recreational activities. Research indi-cates that African Americans prefer more open, well designed, structured, and built amenities as opposed to wildland recreation areas (Johnson, Bowker, & Cordell, 2004). Similarly, Canadians are noted for their year round active participation in outdoor ac-tivities regardless of weather conditions (CAPS-I, 2017). Thus, an urban park should offer a variety of facilities and amenities including playgrounds, ball fields, and walking trails to cater the needs of a multicultural society like Canada.

Walking is considered an important activity for health, ex-ercise, and relaxation. It can be said that environments which are conducive to walking are conducive to people and provide a variety of benefits, including improved fitness and public health (Litman, 2003). A recent national report “Outdoor Recreation for 21st century America” based on the National Survey on Rec-reation and Environment (NSRE) as reported by (Cordell, 2008) indicates that 83% of the population participating in the outdoor activities engage in walking for pleasure. Similarly, a Regional Outdoor Recreational Opportunities Study conducted in 2011 by LEES Associates for the demand analysis of Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) ranked walking for pleasure among the top five popular outdoor recreational activi-ties. The report further indicated that 92% of the population par-ticipated in outdoor recreational activities within Metro Vancou-ver and FVRD area during 2010-2011 was engaged in walking for pleasure (LEES + Associates, 2011). It is safe to assume that it is one of the most popular outdoor recreational activities. A highly engineered trail system and its regular monitoring and maintenance are required to facilitate hiking in these areas. Trail width and surface type can play a key role in its selection for a particular use. Multiple purpose trails for fast travelers are usu-ally wider to accommodate turns and to reduce the possibility of incidents (Designs Beneficial Inc. et al., 1999). Different surface types including gravel, hardwood, or pavement can be used to prevent or reduce the effects of trail use as these effects can be pronounced causing additional costs for park maintenance. How-ever, some visitors may prefer more natural looking unsurfaced trails. Thus some urban park trails should be unsurfaced or have grass surfaces. For these reasons, an urban park trail system may be a combination of trails having distinctive characteristics. The Universal Trail Assessment Process (UTAP) provides guidance for recording valuable information on these characteristics. This information includes, but is not limited to, trail maps, classifica-tion, maintenance records, surface type, width, clearance, user safety, and access. An absence of such information may result in

poor management practices. Traditionally, this information is re-corded in registers which are difficult to retrieve and update on a regular basis. While GIS techniques provide an efficient tool for inventory management and classification of different facilities within an urban park, remote sensing techniques facilitate their accurate and objective mapping. They can also be used to record temporal changes. These changes may cause a feature to change its class/category, shift its position, expand, shrink, or change its shape and are important to record and monitor for effective management. Technologies like remote sensing and GIS can be used effectively to develop an information system for efficient management of an urban park and conservation area.

This research develops an efficient and effective manage-ment/information system for parks and conservation areas using remote sensing and GIS techniques. While any park or conser-vation area could have been chosen for this study, the Waka-mow Valley was selected as it is located in the flood zone of the Moose Jaw River and is in close proximity to the city of Moose Jaw. The city is situated along the river at the intersection of Highway 2 and Trans-Canada Highway in south-central Sas-katchewan (Figure 1). It is regional divisional headquarter for Canadian Pacific Rail (CPR) and is an important transportation hub connecting Chicago via rail. Its rich history and relaxing environments made it a choice of history based tourism desti-nation. Because the Wakamow Valley is prone to both ecologi-cal stress and human impacts it requires regular monitoring and maintenance. As such, it is ideally suited for this study. Study of the valley offers the additional advantage of generating an information system that can be used by the City of Moose Jaw and the Wakamow Conservation Authority for management and future development of the area.

Methods

A geospatial-based case study, using high resolution aerial pho-tographs of 2008 and 2014, was conducted to extract informa-tion on the trail system and its characteristics, and to develop an information system for the Wakamow Valley. The Moose Jaw River, also known as the river of turn while winding through the city, has created a canyon like area close to the south end of the city. This area is prone to spring flooding offering a unique and distinct ecosystem. Wakamow Valley Authority was established in 1981 by provincial act and the valley was declared as a con-servation area. It is also a four-season urban park with over 20 km of trails, three playgrounds, seven park pavilion areas, and about 200 hectares of parkland and natural habitat (Tourism Sas-katchewan, 2016). As the study area (Figure 1) is an urban park in close proximity to a tourist city, it has a high visitation rate and thus requires regular monitoring and maintenance.

High-resolution aerial photographs acquired in 2014 were used to extract land-use and land-cover information and to de-velop a map of the study area. Traditionally, there are different techniques and approaches cited in the literature that have been used successfully to integrate spatial information from various sources into a single GIS platform. However, remotely sensed




data is playing an increasingly significant role in GIS applica-tions. This data needs to be georeferenced to a common local coordinate system so that extracted features can successfully be integrated into the GIS system. High resolution aerial photo-graphs of 2008 and 2014 were used for temporal analysis to re-cord changes over the period of six years. The flowchart shown in Figure 2 summarizes the methodology segments used in this study.

High resolution (10 cm spatial resolution) aerial photo-graphs of 2008 and 2014 were georeferenced as the first step. For this procedure, a set of several well-defined and accurate ground control points (GCPs) were collected through a hand-held Trimble 6000 Series GeoXH GPS device. The accuracy of the georeferencing process depends on the number, distribu-tion, quality, and precision of the GCPs (Gao & Zha, 2006). A standard method of collecting GPS values in a relatively open area for up to 15 minutes and post-processing differential cor-rections were applied to improve the measurement accuracy of the GCPs. As recommended by Toutin and Chenier (2004), 38 well-distributed GCPs along with their RMS error was calcu-lated. Sub-pixel georeferencing accuracy required for accurate

temporal analysis and change detection was achieved by reject-ing GCPs with higher RMS error and used only the most accu-rate GCPs (Smith & Atkinson, 2001).

After georeferencing, image enhancement techniques were applied to these images to improve feature identification and ex-traction. It was observed that the ‘percentage clip’ worked best for these images. Research suggests that an onscreen/heads-up digitization is a viable and proven method for feature ex-traction from high-resolution remote sensing images (Marion (Marion, Leung, & Nepal, 2006). This technique was used to extract land-cover/land-use features including the trail system, tree canopy, grassland, and water bodies. These feature classes were converted into vector layers for their efficient integration into a GIS system. The information collected from the detailed ground surveys was added to the attribute table of these vector layers. Some of the ancillary information obtained from the City of Moose Jaw and Wakamow Valley Authority was also incor-porated into the attribute tables in order to build a comprehen-sive inventory management and information system. Integration into the GIS-based attribute tables provided a base for spatial analysis and accurate mapping of the study area.High resolu-

Figure 1 Project area




Figure 2 A flowchart explaining methodology

tion aerial photographs for 2008 and 2014 were used to record the changes over the six-year periods. Various digital methods have been reported in the literature, but an interpreter analysis of high-resolution aerial photography can produce accurate results with a great degree of precision as compared with the automated analysis techniques (Coppin, Jonckheere, Nackaerts, Muys, & Lambin, 2004; Edwards, 1990). Several changes were detected during this process. However, some of these changes were not recorded as they had minimal effect on the daily activities of the park. Thus, a decision was made to record only areas prone to soil erosion causing a significant threat to the trail system.

Results and Discussion

As a result of the on-screen digitization of the aerial photograph of 2014, a total of seven feature classes comprising trail system, grassed land, tree covered area, non-vegetated (bank) area, wa-

ter bodies, road network, and building footprints were extracted. A summary of the vector layers for land-use/land-cover classes along with their measurements is given in Table 1.

Ancillary information obtained from other resources and ground truth surveys was added to these layers as attribute tables to create different layers for a GIS system and to develop a base map of the area. Classification of trails by a) surface type and b) width and associated land cover is shown in Figure 3.

Detailed spatial analysis of the study area shows that 53.5% is in grassland, 39.7% is covered by trees, and 6.8% is the non-vegetated area along the banks of the Moose Jaw River. Trails in the study area have a combined length of 20.1 km. The majority of trails (80%) have either a grass or gravel surface requiring regular maintenance (Figure 3a). Their respective contribution to the trail system is 45% and 35%. Only 20% trails have hard surfaces that can be used in all weathers and seasons. Whereas the widths of trails vary from 1 to 2.5 m, 59% of the trail system is 2 m wide (Figure 3b). The narrowest trails are 1 m wide. They

Table 1 Land-cover/land-use classes and their measurements




Figure 3 A set of maps where vegetation land cover overlaid by trails: a) classified by surface type and b) by width

are usually the shortest in the system and constitute only 3% of all trails. Trails with widths of 1.5 m and 2.5 m each contribute 19% of the trail system.

The Moose Jaw River winds through the Wakamow Valley causing soil erosion along its banks. This erosion has become prominent in certain parts of the valley (Figure 4). Remote sens-ing images reveal that between 2008 and 2014 an estimated area of 996 m2 was affected by erosion, and caused about 68 m of the Trans Canada Trail to collapse into the river. This portion of the Trans Canada Trail was redesigned and requires special atten-

tion to stop further erosion. Similarly, Moose Jaw River is also causing significant erosion in the close vicinity of some other portions of the trail system as it is prominent in the upper right corner of figure 4. Despite of the fact that this portion of the trail system is under a serious threat of collapsing posing danger to its users, it has yet not been redesigned. Preventive maintenance through reinforcement of river bank and regular monitoring of the area is required to avoid costly redesigning of the trail sys-tem.




Figure 4 Soil erosion and trail redesign along the Trans Canada Trail, Wakamow Valley Park

Parks and conservation area management requires frequent in-formation on a timely basis about the resources, physical charac-teristics, and visitor impacts on any given area. This information is helpful for preventive maintenance so facility degradation caused by its excessive use or by natural phenomena, such as flooding or soil erosion, can be addressed on time to avoid fur-ther damage. Receipt of timely information can also play an important role in the efficient management of existing facilities and the introduction of new amenities. Limitations in staff and funding frequently constrain conservation authorities in obtain-ing such information. This difficulty can be reduced through the use of remote sensing and GIS techniques to develop a compre-hensive information system. It is concluded that high-resolution satellite images or aerial photographs can be used effectively to extract land-cover/land-use features. In the current study, chang-es happening over a period of time were recorded through a tem-poral analysis using images of the Wakamow Valley acquired for 2008 and 2014. This analysis proved helpful in identifying areas under stress which need regular monitoring. Ancillary in-formation attached with the land-use/land-cover classes extract-

ed from the aerial photographs may prove useful for preventive maintenance and future development of the area.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the City of Moose Jaw for provid-ing aerial photographs for 2014 and ancillary information. The authors also wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers of this paper for their continuous guidance and support to improve the readability of the manuscript. Any errors or omissions are the sole responsibility of the authors.

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Conclusion




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