Parks provide communities with opportunities for recreation, social interaction, and improved mental health. However, access to parks is not always evenly distributed across neighborhoods. Depending on the areas, the residents may have accessible parks within walking distance, while other neighborhoods may have limited access to parks within 0.5 miles. I will discuss how does the proportion of residents living within 0.5 miles of a park vary across Seattle census tracts with different racial compositions.

Methodology:

First, I used buffer analysis to show the distance of 0.5 miles from each park location. The distance of 0.5 miles represents a walking distance that residents are likely to have convenient access to parks. While applying buffer analysis, I dissolved the buffer so that it can clearly show the accessibility even if the parks are located densely. After that, I applied clip for census tracts and buffer layers to cut out the areas out of census tracts. Another spatial analysis was a spatial query using the Select by Location tool. I used this tool because it identifies the specific locations that are intersected with census tracts. In this project, highlighting the areas that are accessible to parks within 0.5 miles in census tracts emphasizes whether the areas are accessible to parks or not. 

Additionally, when applying spatial join, I had to convert field types to avoid null values so that spatial join could work properly by using field calculator. I created new fields in the joined table such as a percentage of White population and Asian population to compare the population percentage with these two racial compositions. 

Result:

The spatial analysis tells that many census tracts in Seattle fall within 0.5 miles, indicating that the city has a significant proportion for convenient access to public parks. Since the Seattle has many parks that are distributed across every neighborhood, it's hard to find the areas where are not accessible to parks within 0.5 miles in Seattle. However, the maps also reveal variation in racial composition across different neighborhoods. Some census tracts with higher percentages of specific racial groups are located closer to the major park areas, while others are located farther from there. The comparison of park accessibility with racial compositions demonstrates that higher percentages of white populations are distributed in Seattle which applies to higher accessibility to parks located in Seattle. While it seems to have great access to parks for Seattle residents, there are still some areas where residents may have fewer parks within a short walking distance. 

The map argues that winter temperatures across the United States are projected to increase between the historical period (1975-2005) and the future period (2071-2090). The color scheme, inset map, and title support the argument by showing the differences of temperature change with colors on the map and by presenting specific regions bigger to compare the differences clearly. 

Date of creation: 03/23/2023

- Les Voyageurs, by French artist

Bruno Catalano, in Marseille, France