My goal was to identify potential areas for new Allegheny Parks. Surveys from all 50 states found that 14 have established goals for maximum distances households should live from any park, ranging from 1/8 to 1 mile. I collected county parks and neighborhoods shapefiles from the Western PA Regional Data Center, as well as an Allegheny County Urban Tree Canopy land cover raster from the PA Spatial Data Access (PASDA). In ArcGIS Pro, I created buffers to isolate county areas that were more than a quarter mile from parks. This buffered shapefile was converted to a raster so that the land cover dataset could be clipped from these areas.

The final outcome is shown as a classified raster showing tree canopies and other fauna in green, and urban structures/lots in red. Areas concentrated in green offer opportunities to potentially invest in new park installations, and isolated areas in red represents opportunities to invest in urban greenery, green walls, or green roofs in/on existing structures.