For the "Riverside Parks and Trails Mapping Project," a comprehensive analysis and visualization process was undertaken to create a detailed map showcasing the parks, trails, bike lanes, off-street paths, and a 1-mile buffer zone around the Santa Ana River Trail within the city of Riverside, California.

The project commenced with data acquisition from various authoritative sources, including the City of Riverside's GIS department, the County of Riverside's open data portal, and the California Protected Areas Database (CPAD). These datasets provided information on park boundaries, trail networks, bike lane locations, and other relevant geographic features.

Using QGIS, a powerful open-source geographic information system (GIS) software, the collected data underwent rigorous cleaning, processing, and integration. Geoprocessing tools were employed to ensure spatial accuracy, remove duplicates, and harmonize the data into a consistent projection and coordinate system.

To create the 1-mile buffer zone around the Santa Ana River Trail, the trail's polyline feature was first extracted and processed using the Buffer tool in QGIS. This operation generated a polygon layer representing the desired 1-mile buffer area, which was then incorporated into the final map.

The map layout was carefully designed, incorporating various layers and symbology to enhance visual clarity and readability. Parks were represented as polygons with distinct fill colors and labels, while trails, bike lanes, and off-street paths were symbolized using line features with varying colors and styles based on their respective categories.