Communities Mapping Communities Ottawa Greenspace Mapping Project

Outline Background Purpose Method/Results Discussion Next Steps Conclusion

Ottawa Greenspace Master Plan A target of 4 hectares per 1000 population, or approximately 16 to 20 percent of gross land area Council supports a target of providing the open space and leisure land that is referred to in policy 5, within 400 metres of all homes in primarily residential areas in the urban area With a population expected to grow by more than 50% by 2021, it’s important now more than ever to monitor and maintain the city’s greenspaces. To ensure the city has access to greenspace as population increases, the Ottawa Greenspace Master Plan outlines several greenspace targets

Greenspace natural land, open space and leisure land open space and leisure lands that is in public ownership and is generally accessible to the public Parks Major recreational pathways Land designated as Urban Natural Features or Major Open Space Flood plains and other hazard lands Storm water management facilities

Purpose Answer two questions: How close are we to this area target? How close are we to this accessibility target? Monitor the change in greenspace over time

Data Sources City of Ottawa Urban Boundary Open Space and Leisure Lands Ministry of Natural Resources Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest Statistics Canada Ottawa Census 2016

Data Preparation Open Space and Leisure Lands Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest Clipped data to urban boundary, then I added attributes to the city data including urban natural area, open, space and school grounds to determine which spaces were accessible versus restricted in the open space and leisure lands file Merged open space and leisure lands with the ANSI data to create an Ottawa greenspace dataset

3,169.688 hectares of greenspace Target Area Ottawa urban area has a population of 792,422* 4 hectares per 1000 population 3,169.688 hectares of greenspace 3, 169.688 hectares of greenspace

How close are we to target area? Now that I could identify which greenspace were accessible versus restricted, I could run a script to sum the total area of greenspace in hectares

How close are we to target area? 9773.525 hectares of accessible greenspace 3, 169.688 hectares of greenspace. Ottawa exceeds their greenspace target by 3 times the amount of their targeted space

Greenspace by Ward In addition to looking at the greenspace targets for Ottawa’s urban boundary, I also wanted to evaluate how individual wards within the urban boundary performed because population density in the downtown core would much greater than that on the fringe of the urban boundary, and therefore have a greater greenspace requirement. In order to this, I joined the SC Census 2016 data with the Wards data. I then unioned the greenspace and ward files, and dissolved by ward to get the total amount of greenspace in each ward. I also calculated the required amount of greenspace per 1000 population for each ward. and evaluated whether the total greenspace was greater than the target. Where total greenspace exceeded the target and therefore met the target, I assigned a value of 1. Wards not meeting the target were assigned a 0.

Greenspace by Ward As you can see, wards in the downtown core with the highest population density also lack the most greenspace. In addition, ward _ in the west of Ottawa also does not meet the target. Does not meet criteria

Method: Distance to Residents To answer whether there was accessible greenspace within 400 metres of all residential homes in the urban area, I buffered accessible greenspace by 400 metres. I then ran the select by location tool and created a selection of all residential homes not within 400 metres of accessible greenspace.

Results: Distance to Residents Ottawa performs rather well, with over 87% of all residential homes being within 400 metres of accessible greenspace. 87.68% of residential homes are within 400 metres of accessible greenspace

Discussion While overall the city exceeds gross targeted greenspace, and most wards meet their greenspace requirement. Areas with homes not within 400 meters of accessible greenspace are also those that meet their total target – meaning that there is sufficient greenspace, but it is not ‘accessible’ in terms of walkability

Next Steps Open Street Maps tagging scheme This analysis will form the basis of a community mapping project using regularly updated data from Open Street Maps. Monitoring evolution of greenspace over time through community input, open source software. Open Street Maps 2018

Community Mapping Ottawa Mapathon project Bike Ottawa November 2017

Conclusion Ottawa performs well against the targets outlined in Greenspace Master Plan Monitor how the city is performing with respect to targets Hold city accountable for providing adequate greenspace Community mapping strengthens and empowers the public The city is interested in this data. Community mapping can empower the public by providing opportunities to have a lasting, positive influence on their community. The maps that are generated can be used to document community needs to and assist with consensus-building and decision-making for improving program design and public policies aimed at improving health and decreasing disparities.

Questions?