How local parks can help close the nature gap

Last year, researchers Jon Christensen, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and Dan Rademacher, GreenInfo Network, set out to explore gaps in equitable access to neighborhood and regional public lands in six states. Working with a team at GreenInfo, they used open data and open source tools to produce detailed, statewide analyses of park access based on every park and every person in each state. Through this research, they identified three policy recommendations to address unmet park access needs, which include:

• Build new neighborhood parks;

• Improve infrastructure and programming;

• Increase transit connectivity.

Here's an inside look at what they learned through the course of their research.

Note: This interview was conducted with both researchers at the same time. The answers here are paraphrased from that conversation and edited for length.