The 2025 Population Health Initiative Applied Research Fellowship Project (ARFP) team recently published their spatial analysis findings on access disparities in King County parks in Case Studies in the Environment. The project team, which consisted of three University of Washington graduate students and two undergraduate students, was led by Jessica Godwin, a research scientist with the UW Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology. The 10-week project was in collaboration with stakeholders from King County Parks and the King County Department of Natural Resources.
The ARFP team was motivated by better understanding how people, especially children, access parks and green spaces within King County and using this data to inform future research on equitable access and infrastructure investment. To account for real-world constraints, like highways, lakes and other restricting topography, the team utilized isochrones to measure walking distance to parks. Their analysis revealed distinct patterns: high-access clusters concentrated in Seattle’s urban core, and low-access clusters primarily in eastern and southern King County.
Using this framework, future research could build on the team’s findings by incorporating additional dimensions to examine in greater detail access patterns related to demographic, social and health-related factors. Presently, this study offers a baseline for identifying potential spatial disparities in park access and provides a foundation for future analyses that support equitable and context-specific park planning.