The Problem
Northampton, a region with significant investments in green spaces such as parks and footpaths, faced a critical challenge: understanding how these valuable assets were being utilised by the public. Despite the high priority given to access to green spaces at local and national levels, data on visitor numbers, how these areas are utilised, and areas of high foot traffic often are unknown. This lack of data made it difficult for Northampton’s Active Quarter Partnership—a collective of co-located landowners and managers established in 2022—to effectively manage and enhance these spaces to support physical activity, health, and well-being.
The Solution
To address this challenge, the Northampton Active Quarter Partnership, in collaboration with the University of Northampton, turned to Place Informatics, to utilise the unique green spaces solution. With funding secured through the UK Higher Education Innovation Funding programme, Place Informatics’ advanced green spaces platform is being used to monitor 19 local green spaces over two years. The platform is providing data-driven insights on footfall numbers, identifying key hotspots, popular access points, and the most used footpaths. By harnessing cutting-edge technologies, including machine learning, Place Informatics can offer detailed and actionable insights into how these green spaces are being utilised.
The Benefits
The collaboration with Place Informatics brought several key benefits:
- Data-Driven Decision Making: This partnership is enabling evidence-informed decisions to be made regarding the management of Northampton’s green spaces. By understanding footfall patterns and user behaviour, the Active Quarter Partnership can prioritise improvements in areas with the highest impact.
- Enhanced Accessibility: Insights allow the partnership to identify and address accessibility issues, ensuring that green spaces are more easily accessible to the local community.
- Optimised Resource Allocation: The detailed data on space utilisation helped in better resource allocation, ensuring that maintenance and development efforts were focused on the most frequented areas.
- Strategic Planning: The data supported long-term planning by highlighting trends in green space usage, helping to anticipate future needs and potential areas for development.
The Results
The implementation of Place Informatics’ platform is providing the Northampton Active Quarter Partnership with critical insights into how their green spaces are being used by the public. The data will help reveal patterns of use by residents, commuters, and visitors, allowing the partnership to strategically manage these spaces.
Associate Professor Declan Ryan of The University, commented, “This partnership with Place Informatics has given us key insights into how our green spaces are being utilised helping the Active Quarter Partnership to manage these important local assets.”
