Award-Winning App Redefines Trail Accessibility for Hikers

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (Midpen), an independent special district in the greater Santa Cruz Mountains region of Northern California, preserves a regional greenbelt of more than 70,000 acres of open space land. Midpen also facilitates opportunities for environmentally conscious public recreation and learning, including a 250-mile trail network. The award-winning geographic information system (GIS) team at Midpen is responsible for providing all departmental staff, partner organizations, and the community with highly accurate geographic data and innovative solutions.

To effectively fulfill the mission of providing exceptional outdoor opportunities to the community, the Midpen GIS team conducted visitor use surveys to better understand the preferences of their trail visitors. The survey results highlighted a strong desire for more detailed trail information, particularly regarding trail difficulty levels. 

Jamie Hawk, the GIS program administrator at Midpen, emphasized the complexity of tailoring trails to individual preferences, which led to extensive internal discussions and collaboration with the planning department. One significant project that emerged from this discussion and the user surveys was the need for a web-based app, which became Trail Explorer. This ArcGIS Dashboards app is powered by a comprehensive trail information system involving the GIS team, the planning department, and the land stewardship and trails department, and works on mobile devices and computers. Public access to the detailed trail data is available via their open data site built with ArcGIS Hub.
 

Two-thirds of the surveyed visitors agreed that slope, or trail steepness, is critical to trip planning. Sun exposure and trail width were also ranked highly. These results subsequently informed the trail database design, data collection strategy, and web app functionality.

From 2020, Midpen has hosted interns and tasked them with collecting point data along Midpen’s trails using ArcGIS Field Maps. The 8,000 data points collected include trail characteristics like tread type, surface, and cross slope at 500-foot intervals. During field data collection, interns document trail conditions and obstacles through photographs. Subsequently, the GIS team processes this point data, synthesizes it, and color-codes the average values onto the trail feature class to make the data user-friendly. This process integrates slope elevation and canopy cover information into the GIS.

When planning a visit to the trails, members of the community can now access comprehensive trail information through the app. The trail slope is featured prominently on the map with bold and intuitive colors. Visitors can filter for up to 10 different trail criteria including slope, cross slope, width, surface type, sun exposure, accessibility, and more.

“Visitors sometime tell our rangers, ‘I wish I knew how steep that trail was going to be,’ or ask if there is a good place to take small children for an easy walk, or maybe they want a challenge because they are training for Mount Whitney,” explained Brian Malone, assistant general manager at Midpen. “Now they can get all that info instantly, before they head out, on Midpen’s Trail Explorer tool, an easy color-coded guide map to the difficulty of all the preserve trails.”

This alternative approach to a traditional trail difficulty ranking system is unique and inclusive, allowing visitors of all mobilities and backgrounds to make informed decisions when planning an outing to the preserve.

“It [the app] includes filters for everything from accessibility to trails for bike, horse, or dog access, giving everyone tools to plan an enjoyable visit,” said Malone. He added that a lot of technical and field work went into the development of this new tool, as it can be difficult to interpret terms like grade and slope and translate them into color-coded ranges, from generally flat in blue (0–5% grade) to very steep in red (≥14% grade).

The positive reception since the app’s launch has validated these decisions, with users expressing enthusiasm for the inclusion of slope and the numerous filterable trail characteristics.

“The Trail Explorer web application makes it easy for a member of the public to find exactly what they’re looking for,” said Fran Lopez Tapia, data analyst at Midpen.
 

Making the app is one step; promoting it is another. To maximize the impact of the app, the GIS team created a flyer with a QR code guiding readers directly to the app, then posted the flyer at the trailheads. In addition, Trail Explorer was announced via Midpen’s social media accounts, their electronic and print newsletters, a story in the local newspaper, and via a video tutorial featured on their website. Now that the app is up and running, a feedback loop via an ArcGIS Survey123 form allows users to rate their experience with the app and suggest improvements.

The results have been remarkable. Midpen has won four awards for Trail Explorer: an Esri Special Achievement in GIS Award, second place in the Dashboard category at the Esri User Conference Map Gallery, a California Trails and Greenways Merit Award in Technology, and a high commendation from the California Geographic Information Association for Excellence and Innovation.

The Midpen GIS team has not stopped there regarding GIS resources for trail users. They also provide public access to an interactive 3D web scene that allows viewers to use elevation profiles to get valuable, detailed information for hike planning.
 

Parks and recreation is a location-based business, and professionals apply GIS to the full range of their work, including:

• Planning and design
• Smart operations
• Education and outreach
• Community health and well-being
• Equity
• Climate resilience

For organizations aiming for success like Midpen, ArcGIS is the mission-critical enterprise IT business system that transforms location data into valuable insights, enhancing decision-making and delivering significant business value.