INTERACTIVE DISCOVERY WALKS: A MOBILE APPLICATION FOR EXPLORING TORONTO PARKS AND NATURAL HERITAGE FEATURES

City parks and outdoor recreational opportunities are among Toronto’s most valued resources. The Discovery Walks Program has been one of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation’s flagship outreach efforts to engage residents and tourists alike in learning about culturally and environmentally significant areas across the city. The purpose of this project is to develop and implement a mobile interactive Discovery Walks application that delivers an in-depth and customizable experience to users. Information describing the local environment, recreational opportunities, as well as cultural and historical features will be combined with mobile geolocation technology to allow users the opportunity to participate in self-guided and interactive tours. Development of the mobile mapping tool will use HTML5 with several Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and libraries such as jQuery and Google Maps/Fusion Tables. The project’s organizational partner is the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation, which believes that engaging a new generation of visitors to parks and natural areas (a mobile generation) provides a contemporary approach to the promotion of many of Toronto’s most valued characteristics and may also serve to enhance stewardship of the city’s prominent natural heritage features.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Andrew Millward

Student:

William Davis

Partner:

Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Forestry

University:

Ryerson University