Atlas of Maine

Article Title

Distribution and Accessibility of Public Green Space in Waterville, ME

Authors

Yue Yu, Colby CollegeFollow
Ruofei Jia, Colby CollegeFollow

Abstract or Description

This project shows the distribution and accessibility of public green space in the city of Waterville, ME. Green space is important in urban areas because it encourages interaction between residents and nature, builds social ties, enhances spatial network, provides public spaces for recreation, and benefits physical and mental health. The city of Waterville does not have accurate GIS data that shows a complete network of green spaces in the city. A 2004 National Land Cover Database classifies areas with vegetation. Waterville city zoning data classifies the land into functional zones. However, previous to our project, the land cover and zoning data were not well connected. For the purpose of this project, we defined “public” as “institutional districts (INST)” and “resource protection (RP)” zones in Waterville city zoning data and classified vegetation as any area with NDVI values between 0.605 and 0.823. We also conducted a least-cost path analysis to form a network between green parcels. The map is projected in the NAD 1983 UTM Zone19N coordinate system.

About the Author

Yue Yu (Anna) '19 is a student at Colby College majoring in Environmental Studies Interdisciplinary Computation and Science, Technology, and Society. She was born and raised and Beijing, China. She is also involved in Enviro-Co, Eco-Reps, and Colby Volunteer Center. Ruofei Jia’ 19 is a student in Colby College majoring in Geoscience and minoring in Music. Born and raised in Beijing, she loves to explore the beauty and power of sustainable cities. She was one of the leaders of the volunteer group Lives of Purpose, and participates actively in classical vocal performances.

Source Data Note

We obtained our road and elevation data from Maine Office of GIS, Waterville Zoning District data from the city of Waterville, Landsat 5 and the 2004 National Land Cover Database from USGS, and a World Imagery map from ESRI.

Rights

In Copyright

Recommended Citation

Yu, Yue and Jia, Ruofei "Distribution and Accessibility of Public Green Space in Waterville, ME," Atlas of Maine: Vol. 2017: No. 2, Article 3.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/atlas_docs/vol2017/iss2/3