Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/21474

The Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS) is administered by the National Center for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD). It is a campus-wide initiative that harnesses the expertise of UMD faculty and the energy and ingenuity of UMD students to help Maryland communities become more environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable. PALS is designed to provide innovative, low-cost assistance to local governments while creating real-world problem-solving experiences for University of Maryland graduate and undergraduate students.

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    Litter Tracking App for Patapsco Heritage Greenway
    (Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS), 2021) Vyas, Shasvat; Chau, Daniel; Obenland, Jonathan; Henrici, John; Lan, Ziyang; Rainsford, TJ
    The Patapsco Heritage Greenway (PHG) and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) help preserve Maryland’s natural resources along the Patapsco River. PHG oversees volunteers who take on various roles ranging from litter cleanup to identification, while DNR works in conjunction with PHG in clean-up efforts. Both PHG and DNR seek to enhance their data collection methods and promote litter clean-up in the communities surrounding the Patapsco River. This proposed project will create functional wireframes for a mobile application that will allow users to report litter, see litter trends, and identify areas that need attention. The information collected needs to be sorted cleanly and concisely to identify data trends that can help create targeted programs to eliminate litter’s primary sources. This document describes the project deliverables and objectives and serves as a formal reference to the data collection, research, and wireframing process.
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    Expert Review of the MyCoast Application
    (Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS), 2021) Acuna, Annika; Bishop, Dylan; Dissen, Olivia; Escarda, Julia; Rao, Ananth; Soni, Jasmine; Rainsford, TJ
    The MyCoast app is a mobile and web-based application used by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to document and analyze pictures and data of flooding caused by precipitation and coastal events. The data it collects is used for various purposes, including visualizing impacts of flood events, as well as enhancing awareness of flood events among Maryland residents. This project’s goal was to create an expert review of the MyCoast application. Initially, the goal was to create wireframes and a new schema for the app. After discussion, the goal shifted to interviewing people with different backgrounds (who work in sector, peers, etc.) and creating a list of recommendations from our findings. This report reviews the MyCoast application and end-user feedback on app functionality and user experience, makes recommendations for improvements to the app and recommendations for improvements to end-user documentation to improve the user experience and data quality.
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    Building Lifecycle Utility Cost Analysis
    (Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS), 2021) Balliu, Olva; Gaidis, Theodore; Houtman, Conner; Marmo, Thomas; Rokkala, Natasha; Schultz, Pete; Rainsford, TJ
    Prince George’s County Parks & Recreation builds, operates, and maintains a number of facilities with significant lifespans. To better understand the impact of capital investment and building code changes that might lead to reducing long term operating costs, the Department seeks a comparative analysis using available utilities usage data from six large, well established facilities. This project has a business objective—to understand the relationship between initial capital investment, changes in building codes, and long-term operational costs. This will enable Prince George’s County Parks & Recreation to make better informed decisions about the construction of new facilities and about minimizing long-term operational costs. To meet the objective, the team developed contextualized data visualizations that tell the story of how initial capital investment affects building operating costs.
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    Healthy Parks, Healthy Person App
    (Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS), 2021) Baker, Drew; Hughley, Elizabeth; Iweala, Chinemerem; Pineda, Andy; Ramos, Jack; Soriano, Jian; Rainsford, TJ
    Through its Department of Parks and Recreation, Prince George’s County is looking for ways to improve community health by developing a mobile application to aid in physical and mental wellness. This application will be used as a tool to promote and track the use of parks, trails, and open space and the reported impacts on health outcomes. With the stress induced by the events of the past year (including but not limited to the COVID-19 pandemic), physical and emotional health concerns have become increasingly prevalent issues that the County’s Department of Parks and Recreation could help address. This project’s objective is to track the impact and performance of methods like ParkRx, which could prescribe the use of parks to citizens to increase healthy lifestyles in Prince George’s County. This will be accomplished by designing a mobile application that connects residents with available county parks, trails, facilities, and programs. The app will include a reward system that incentivizes engagement with these offerings, as well as track use metrics such as age, gender, and basic demographic information to help the county understand who is using what facilities and how often. The data collected through the app will be used by the Department of Parks and Recreation to assess the usage of its parks, facilities, and programs, to gauge where to focus its efforts in creating a physically and mentally healthier environment for Prince George’s County’s residents. The people involved in this project included teams from Prince George’s County Department of Parks and Recreation. Katrina Williams, Edeline Dormevil, Edith Michel, Thomas Paolucci, Lynell Poyner, Michael Wigglesworth, and Bonnie Man were involved in developing the wireframes for this project.
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    Historic Preservation Digital History Design
    (Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS), 2021) Aguirre, Jackie; Gugel, Daniel; Li, Xiuwei; Moshman, Aviva; Song, Jooyong; Rainsford, TJ
    The goal for this project was to create the early stages of a web development project for the Prince George’s County Parks and Recreation Department. Our team created the initial wireframe designs, identified problems for future aspects of the project, and provided recommendations for the next stages of development. The original project requirements included developing a website design for Parks and Recreation historical sites. However, our project scope changed to focus on the historic Compton Bassett house. Compton Bassett is a former plantation in Upper Marlboro, Maryland dating to 1783. The historic site consists of 14 buildings and is suffering from age and degradation. As a result, the site is not safe for the public to visit and needs to be preserved through an online virtual exhibit. The website will serve two different stakeholders: the public and researchers. It will allow the public to explore historic sites virtually by manipulating 3D models of the sites and accessing information about the sites. Researchers will be able to access sensitive data by registering for an account. Our client and point of contact for the project was Dr. Stefan Woehlke. Our team also communicated with Partnership for Active Learning in Sustainability (PALS) Director Kimberly Fisher, PALS Graduate Assistant Sophie Kotzker, and National Center for Smart Growth website developer Aishwarya Biddatanda.
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    Senior ID Access Card Research Report
    (2020) Banavai, Rahidah; Nguyen, Thi; Oakman, Alea; Strong, Jasmine; Wu, Jiening; Alavi, Niloo; Beitzell, Saskia; DiPasquale, Sarah; Douthitt, Bree; Oshiro, Miya; Alexander, Matthew; Cooper, Brandon; Letang, Niku; Li, Ruiqi; Velloso, Camila; Chen, Kinny (Yuanqi); Lin, Zi; Parrish, Aubrey; Tang, Vivian (Wei-Farn); Winbush, Kayla; Lutters, Wayne
    The Department of Parks and Recreation is seeking to increase both the number of sign-ups and participation of seniors in the M-NCPPC Senior ID program. This project supports the Department’s mission of assisting the physical, mental and social needs of Prince George’s County’s diverse and aging population through the Senior ID card. The shift to an online environment has created some barriers for seniors to enroll and stay engaged with the activities and events offered through the M-NCPPC Senior ID program. For instance, seniors in Prince George’s County have different levels of access to and expertise with the technology required to participate in remote activities and events. The Department of Parks and Recreation is also aiming to mitigate social isolation during these difficult times. Although Department staff periodically perform wellness check-ins with seniors, the number of activities and events has significantly reduced. In-person activities like walking groups, also have limited space due to social distancing measures or have been cancelled altogether. Nonetheless, some of the seniors interviewed expressed an interest in staying active by walking or participating in the Club 300 Walk Across America program offered by the Department. Therefore, the Department of Parks and Recreation is looking for ways to keep seniors engaged by facilitating online sign-up for the Senior ID program and to hear from users about their needs and desires for the program. The goal of this research is to understand how the Department can increase the number of Senior ID users by providing activities and services that meet the diverse needs of the Prince George’s County senior population. This research will identify barriers that prevent residents from signing up for a Senior ID and what opportunities exist to increase sign-ups. It will also highlight effective communication strategies to recruit new members and retain and increase participation in the Senior ID program. Finally, this research will explore how the Department can promote member socialization and connectivity in an online environment.
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    Piscataway Valley Greenway
    (Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS), 2019) Gray, Lauren; Jones, Alison; Mallory, Jonathan; Podietz, Emma; Samoray, Christopher; Sullivan, William; Whitley, Yuki; Myers, David N.
    Piscataway Watershed encompasses approximately 67.6 square miles in southern Maryland just north and adjacent to the Mattawoman Watershed. The main stem of Piscataway Creek, centered in the watershed, flows approximately 20 miles from the upper creeks near Rosaryville, Woodyard and Joint Base Andrews west to Piscataway Bay - enframed by Mockley Point on the south and Fort Washington on the north and opening to the Potomac River below Washington, D.C. across from Mt. Vernon, Virgina. Other tributaries within the Piscataway Watershed include Tinkers Creek, Dower House Branch, Burch Branch, Butler Branch and many numerous smaller tributaries. Occupied by humans dating over 4000 years ago, some of the old and new place names include Clinton, Rosaryville, Woodyard, Piscataway, Accokeek, Thrift, Windbrook, Brooke Jane Manor, Cheltenham, Williamsburg Estates, and Fort Washington Forest. Roads spoking from greater DC and more developed middle Prince George’s County mainly cross Piscataway Creek going north to south and include Indian Head Highway, Livingston Road, Piscataway Road, Brandywine Road, Branch Avenue (Route 5) and Surratts Road. Significant parks within or adjacent to Piscataway Watershed include Louise F. Cosca Regional Park (MNCPPC), Fort Washington (NPS), Rosaryville State Park (DNR), and multiple properties that comprise Piscataway Creek Stream Valley Park (MNCPPC). Portions of the originally planned trails proposed in the Prince George’s County Trails Master Plan have been conceptually located along the spine of Piscataway Creek. The main segment of this concept trail from Indian Head Highway to Rosaryville is 99% in the floodplain. In addition, it was conceptualized at a time that some of the development patterns in the watershed had not occurred. The criteria for trail alignment have changed over the decades. Some of the overarching questions as the students explored the project were: ● Should the entire trail or segments of it be realigned out of the floodplain? ● Should there be additional cross trail connections in the scope of work? ● How can we better connect neighborhoods to a proposed trail system? ● How can we encourage hiking to promote health and stewardship?
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    Drainage Solutions
    (Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS), 2019) Geils, Ryan; Johnson, Tyler; Wildt, Jason; Rinehart, Geoff
    The purpose of this document is to provide a drainage plan for the Prince George’s County Department of Parks and Recreation that establishes the purpose and reasoning for implementing new drainage technologies that use the most cost-effective treatment options. This report is based on drainage analysis tests performed at two County golf courses—Paint Branch Golf Complex, a nine-hole, par 33 course and practice facility, and Enterprise Golf Course, an 18-hole facility, par 72 championship course. This report and proposal contains:  a site analysis of each golf course  initial findings in our visits  the analysis and results of two separate soil tests  a list of the most effective and available drainage options  the recommended drainage option.
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    Tree Planting in Prince George’s County, Maryland: Case Studies and Benefits Assessment in Four Parks
    (Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS), 2019) Allen, Tobias; Allsopp, Millie; Burkhardt, Ian; Ebinama, Nnamdi; Escobar, Antonio; Kisakye, Ian; Martin, Bryn; Moody, Kelsey; Pajaro, Heyner; Ren, Xiaojin; Rodrigo, Karisha; Rosales, Ante; Santaella, Diego; Savio, Hannah; Serra, Lucia; Steinthal, Caitlin; Stokes, Bridget; Wellnitz, Shane; Wilke, Audrey; Myers, David N.
    The benefits of trees and forests and the ecosystems services that they provide is well documented. Ecosystems services include carbon sequestration, stormwater retention, water pollution reduction, air pollution retention and others. In addition, tree planting efforts provide numerous social benefits including improvement of community cohesion, increase in social capital, and environmental stewardship and education. In order to provide a greater understanding of tree planting efforts and assessing tree benefits locally, two major project components were undertaken: 1) the research and documentation using case studies of individual tree planting efforts, and 2) assessment of benefits of recent and proposed trees for four selected parks in Prince George’s county.
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    Montgomery County Parks: Engage Millennials in Parks
    (Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS), 2018) Robeck, Christopher; Xiao, Di; Sattiraju, Praneetha; Atre, Vinita; Kules, Bill