Summary Overview of the Engagement Tool/Innovation:
The visibility analysis toolkit is designed to locate and evaluate the best possible locations for green and blue spaces within urban areas. This toolkit can be used to improve the planning, designing, and evaluating of green spaces. For example, it can be used for creating health-promoting spaces, with a focus on proximity to groups most sensitive to environmental health impacts. Moreover, this toolkit then be used alongside others which focus on giving communities the ability to design public spaces, which would then be analysed by the toolkit to evaluate their benefits.
Role in decision-making:
This tool would be used alongside other tools and would not have a deciding say on a project, instead it is there to recommend the best locations for certain projects, or the best type of project for a certain location.
Informing: workshops can be set up to show individuals the process the visibility analysis undertakes.
Consulting: this tool kit can be used in conjunction with other toolkits which allow participants to design green areas, as it is focused on finding the most suitable location and analysing the benefits of building a green space in said location.
Hard to reach groups: as the toolkit is designed to analyse the best locations for green spaces and their benefits, the analysis could be focused on finding a location for groups which have less local access to green spaces.
Building trust with communities: can build trust with communities as the process will ensure that the best possible change is created in a community, showing local people that effort and consideration is being put into their area.
Suitable for:
This tool would be useful for projects of all sizes as it aims to ensure that the placement of projects is as effective as it possibly can be.
Because of the nature of the tool, it is not designed to benefit different groups, instead it is used alongside other tools which may already provide that purpose. This tool would be used to ensure that the targeted groups are being benefited as much as is possible.
HOW TO DO IT:
When using this tool, UGN would already have a project underway. This tool would then come into play when UGN wish to find the best possible locations for the project to be carried out in.
Once the project is decided upon, UGN would create either a virtual or physical model of the city, or part of the city. Following this, they would use remote sensing and geographic information systems to analyse the model to show the best possible locations.
For example, the analysis could be looking for the best location for a health promoting green space. Because of this, the system would look for areas around hospitals, care homes and schools, as the people in these locations are more likely to be affected by environmental health issues.
Following this, UGN would decide on the most feasible locations from those suggested by the analysis.
The resources used for this tool can vary depending on how UGN wish to map and present the terrain of the city. One possible way is through digital terrain models (DTM) and digital surface models (DSM). Another option is to build a 3D model of the city. Following this remote sensing and geographic information systems would be used to analyse the space.
Staff would be needed to create the model of the city as well as analyse it, then following this present the information to those working on the project.
ADVANTAGES
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Ensures the projects is optimised
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Reusable
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Ensures that communities are provided with the best possible green spaces for their area
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Would be a useful exercise to undertake if UGN was doing an engagement process that covered all or a significant number of parks in a particular area of the city.
CHALLENGES
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Could be costly (but would be worth it overtime)
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May take time to implement
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Would require a lot of staff capacity to ensure that the full results of the engagement were realised.
