ParkInfo.org Parks and Recreation Sites

ParkInfo.org - Exciting New Cartography for Web Access to Parks and Recreation Sites


View Data from 3d ParkInfo.org combines the cartographic and the terrain to produce highly effective visualisations of the campgrounds and park boundary information.

The non-profit www.greeninfo.org Network has just put up a new version of its ParkInfo web site, offering up some great web map cartography that shows every public parks and protected open space in California, along with nifty integration of Google Maps API and Open Street Map data, Google Earth overlays, multiple search tools and more.

Full information on Parks, Campground at a click of a button.

ParkInfo uses the California Protected Areas Database (CPAD), a comprehensive and highly accurate GIS data set of everything from neighborhood tot lots to vast federal wilderness areas, almost all mapped to official property ownership boundaries. GreenInfo Network, which works for public interest groups on a wide range of GIS and information technology projects, maintains the 49 million acre, 15,000 unit CPAD database. CPAD is available for non-commercial use at www.calands.org , and has been developed with ESRI ArcGIS software.

The web site features the CPAD lands that are open to public use (some require a permit). The site lets users search near an address, by park or city name, or in a zip code. Search results show as lists and on the map and all parks on the map are clickable with more information - including a direct web link, driving/transit directions (via Google Maps Directions) and a link to Bing's Birdseye view of the site. The web map can also be enlarged to full screen to take advantage of the great cartography.

GreenInfo shifted from using Google's Streets view to its own custom MapView, which features 10 meter DEM data in an attractive hillshade and well-styled Open Street Map streets. When fully zoomed in, users also see contour lines. In addition to Satellite view, users can also easily browse all the ParkInfo data using the Google Earth plugin. ParkInfo also has all public campgrounds in the state and a selection of Open Street Map trails.

TopOSM terrain tiles have been used to show relief in 2D view for ParksInfo.org

Map tiles were created using the TopOSM scripts and rendering process created by Lars Ahlzen see http://toposm.com/usw/ for example. Areas, streets and labels are rendered using Mapnik. PostgreSQL with the PostGIS extension provides the spatial query capabilities for ParkInfo while a MapServer Web Map Service (WMS) GetFeatureInfo request returns park details when a user clicks on a park.

View the Map in 2D and 3D - http://www.parkinfo.org/

ParkInfo can be adapted into other organizations and agencies' web sites, allowing them to offer full search of public recreational opportunities. The State of California Department of Parks and Recreation has already done so at http://Findrecreation.parks.ca.gov

Composed by Larry Orman from http://www.greeninfo.org/ with thanks from Mapperz
GreenInfo is exploring an API as well as expanding ParkInfo to other U.S. states. Contact them at: parkinfo@greeninfo.org