{"id":466252,"date":"2021-10-12T06:50:15","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T13:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=466252"},"modified":"2025-05-08T19:32:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T02:32:33","slug":"la-river-equity-revitalization","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/la-river-equity-revitalization","title":{"rendered":"Equity in Urban Design: For LA River Revitalization, Numbers Are Not Enough"},"author":6082,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[121252],"tags":[441,338282,351,1511],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[492442,492462],"esri_blog_department":[492402],"class_list":["post-466252","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geodesign","tag-geodesign","tag-los-angeles","tag-planning","tag-revitalization","esri-blog-category-equity-social-justice","esri-blog-category-revitalization","esri_blog_department-urban-planning"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"Careful consideration of people and natural processes leads to a holistic approach to LA River revitalization.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"<div><span class=\"normaltextrun\">Jean Yang applies the geodesign approach to create urban places that consider the needs of people, communities, and nature.<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\nKey Takeaways\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Urban designer draws on experience in Hong Kong, Kenya, and US for unique holistic design approach.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Working group digs into a variety of data to ensure equity in LA River revitalization.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Geodesign supports community engagement for rebuilding and rethinking public spaces.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Jean Yang, a senior associate at the Los Angeles design firm Studio-MLA, is a self-described recovering \"metrics-aholic.\" Educated in economics, Yang learned to trust hard numbers, but through experience working with communities, she realized that we need to look beyond quantitative metrics to understand how to reflect community input into public space design. As Studio-MLA\u2019s project manager for the Upper Los Angeles River and Tributaries plan, Yang is helping apply both qualitative and quantitative insights to ensure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/infrastructure-management\">infrastructure equity<\/a> in a massive revitalization plan.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe LA River is 52 miles long and links a variety of communities, income levels, and histories,\u201d Yang said. \u201cWe need to understand it as a \u00a0connective tissue that not only links us, but also highlights what\u2019s special and unique about each place.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":466282,"image_position":"right","orientation":"vertical","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The Upper Los Angeles River and Tributaries <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=k3GD7APs52s\">revitalization plan<\/a> identifies more than 300 recreation and conservation projects and could bring open-space amenities to more than 625,000 residents. To achieve amenities for everyone, she uses a geodesign framework supported by geographic information system (GIS) technology.\r\n<h3><strong>The Journey to Geodesign<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nYang\u2019s parents immigrated to the US from China and raised her with great respect for careers in math and sciences. Though her father wanted to be a writer, he became a doctor instead, believing the medical field to be more reliable. Following her father\u2019s advice, and having watched her family struggle with finances, Yang decided to pursue a bachelor\u2019s degree in economics and government at Cornell University.\r\n\r\nBut another experience was influencing Yang\u2019s career path. She recalled visiting malls in Hong Kong, which served as community gathering places with office spaces and high-end retail stores. At the time, Yang noticed how these spaces were reserved for a select portion of the population.\u00a0 Inspired by the idea of equitable public spaces, she went on to earn a master\u2019s degree in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a second master\u2019s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Southern California.\r\n\r\nAfter graduation, an internship with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kounkuey.org\/\">Kounkuey Design Initiative<\/a>\u00a0(KDI) took Yang to Kibera, Kenya. \u201cNobody actually owned [the land],\u201d she said. \u00a0Her work involved KDI\u2019s first public space project, which cleaned up a vacant plot of land and built a playground, community space, and community office. \u00a0\u201cAn open space in a private development is not going to be as equitable and accessible to multiple people as one that is freely accessible and has a playground and places where kids can be kids.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[466362,466372,466292,466302,466342,466332]},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"<h2><strong>Taking a Geodesign Approach<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nGeodesign represents a unique approach to meeting community challenges by melding the analytical rigors of social, natural, and geographic sciences with the strategies of planning and the creativity and graphic representations of design thinking.\r\n\r\nGeodesign fosters holistic planning and design\u2014with data and design tightly coupled\u2014to generate context-specific plans for rapidly evolving landscapes.\r\n\r\nAt inception, geodesign planning and design is rooted and informed by contextual data to ensure design decisions avoid mismatches with the place. Once created, alternatives are scrutinized based on clearly defined performance metrics and adjusted and iterated if the project doesn\u2019t perform as needed. Geodesign considers the cascading impacts of design choices to understand the project\u2019s impacts on the natural and built environment.\r\n\r\nUsing GIS, geodesign practitioners compile data and visualize and analyze it to consider both quantitative and qualitative metrics about design choices. These may include Census and mobile phone data help GIS users consider the human dimensions of a place. Alternatively, environmental data such as topography, soils, and vegetation can be used to inform, analyze, and understand a project\u2019s impacts on natural systems, such as stormwater drainage. When used to its fullest potential, GIS also is used to incorporate outputs from simulations that consider the economic and natural benefits of a project.\r\n\r\nGeodesign supports urban planners, landscape architects, designers, engineers, and stakeholders with a blend of science- and value-based information to understand the complex relationships between human-designed settlements and the changing environment.\r\n\r\nThe approach helps formulate design alternatives, develop strategies, test scenarios, assess risks, adapt to changes, and monitor the results. Moreover, geodesign works best when community feedback is integrated throughout the entire process, as opposed to just during review phase.\r\n\r\nIn geodesign, the goal is to imagine the best possible purpose of a place, and to consider what the world could become. It empowers users to understand the benefits and consequences of our design decisions before they become reality, thereby allowing us to implement the best choices and strive towards more perfect outcomes. Doing so equips us with the information needed to forge a more sustainable world; and what\u2019s best for now as well as the future.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Building on her education and experiences, Yang developed a deep understanding of how land use affects a community. From her training in economics and her skill in decoding metrics, she knew that numbers were difficult to argue against. She saw how quantitative data is used in decision-making for public spaces. But through her internship in Kenya, Yang learned that qualitative data was also, if not equally, important.\r\n\r\nYears later, working on the LA River revitalization plan, Yang applies that sensibility and the GIS technology that supports it. She practices geodesign using GIS to capture proposals, including those from the community. Plans are displayed on smart maps so all stakeholders can view them in the context of their geographic location, give feedback, then make iterations and decisions.\r\n\r\nYang considers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/products\/mapping\/overview\">mapping visualizations<\/a> to be \u201chuman-centric and understandable,\u201d which is especially important for community engagement. \u201cWith mapping, I feel like once community members understand it . . . this new layer of interest automatically comes up because it is based on things that they\u2019re inherently interested in, which is their community,\u201d she said."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3><strong>Discovering the Link between Past and Present, People, and Place\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h3>\r\nMembers of the Upper Los Angeles River and Tributaries Working Group recognize the value of waterways and the importance of protecting the river\u2019s watershed resources while prioritizing the needs of disadvantaged communities. Yang is using this opportunity to design spaces focused on the needs of the surrounding community, relying on qualitative and quantitative information.\r\n\r\nTo help determine which areas are good candidates for accessible and equitable recreation spaces, the work group uses the LA County Parks and Recreation equity index. \u201cWe\u2019re layering all of this qualitative data on top of the quantitative park needs assessment, household income, what the schools are like, and what the crime rates are like to get a more well-rounded picture of where parks should be going in these areas,\u201d Yang said.\r\n\r\nThough Yang still admits she\u2019s never met a metric she didn\u2019t like, she realizes that numbers alone are not enough. To build equitable neighborhoods and create accessible public spaces, designers and planners need to understand the people in their communities. She\u2019s seeing the impact of this approach in the LA River revitalization effort. \u201cIn a less-metric way, they are seeing themselves as community\u2014gathering in places where you get to know each other and create this community network.\u201d\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nLearn more about how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/geodesign\">geodesign helps create built places that more closely integrate with natural places<\/a>. Every year, geodesign practitioners gather for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/about\/events\/geodesign-summit\">Esri Geodesign Summit<\/a> to share and discover best practices, learn new tools, and see how peers are confronting design challenges head on. We invite you to join this exciting group of experts and apply geodesign your own community.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;"},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[466312,466322,466352]},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Center","content":"<h2><strong>Exploring Equitable Design<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nEquitable design goes beyond metrics to incorporate qualitative research on how a place is used by people and the contributions people receive from the natural environment. When urban planners gain a broader understanding of community needs related to current or proposed use of a location, they can answer two paramount equity questions: Who benefits, and who is burdened?\r\n\r\nAnswering these questions helps demonstrate the larger impact of design decisions. It can change how urban planners and landscape architects design spaces and engage communities in the process.\r\n\r\nSeveral parks and recreation systems across the US, including in cities like <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcity.org\/daily\/entry\/milwaukee-latest-city-to-put-an-equity-lens-on-its-parks\">Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh, are implementing equity indexes and frameworks<\/a> to examine needs and determine where to invest for future planning efforts. The same is true in Los Angeles where planners are merging qualitative and quantitative datasets to better understand the community. The approach, which is rooted in geodesign and applied using GIS maps, can fundamentally change how planners and architects work.\r\n\r\n\u201cThey\u2019re basically reimagining their park system as a tool to advance equity and justice,\u201d said Jean Yang, a senior associate at the Los Angeles design firm Studio-MLA. \u201cIt\u2019s a base to prioritize resources.\u201d","snippet":""}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Equity in Urban Design: For LA River Revitalization, Numbers Are Not Enough<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Careful consideration of people and natural processes leads to a holistic approach to LA River revitalization.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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