Quality parks provide numerous benefits to individuals and communities, including health cost-savings through physical activity and stress relief, increased tax revenue via augmented property values and attracting businesses, and positive social and environmental impacts through outcomes such as civic pride and pollution control. The Community Park Audit Tool (CPAT) provides a comprehensive yet user-friendly means of engaging diverse stakeholders in the process of evaluating and improving local parks to achieve these benefits. More recently, we developed an initial electronic app version of the CPAT (eCPAT) and have conducted extensive beta testing with project and workshop participants (e.g., youth, public health researchers, park professionals). eCPAT has been very well-received throughout these preliminary efforts, but they have also identified important improvements to the app and associated infrastructure that are needed to satisfy the demands of a multitude of interested user groups and support commercialization. Therefore, the two related aims of this proposal are: 1) To develop and advance eCPAT mobile technology and infrastructure for broader use by diverse populations, and 2) To conduct feasibility testing and examine the utility of the eCPAT system with diverse user groups. To accomplish these aims, we will build on our team's vast expertise in parks and recreation, technology development, public health, and entrepreneurship to integrate additional innovative features within the eCPAT app (e.g., camera, GIS, social media connectivity) as well as develop robust access and database infrastructure to ensure scalability and security. We will then engage 100 stakeholders from a variety of fields (public parks and recreation agencies, parks and public health researchers, citizens, health care professionals, real estate investors/agents) in workshops to test the enhanced eCPAT app and system and to examine strategies for commercialization and dissemination. Advancement of eCPAT represents an innovative opportunity ? in a substantial market with no current competitors ? to capitalize on the benefits of electronic data collection and to facilitate the integration of these data with other emerging technologies to support individual, organizational, and community decision-making. The eCPAT app and system can be used by parks and recreation agencies in communities across the U.S. to standardize park data collection and management; by researchers conducting studies about the built environment, parks, and related outcomes such as physical activity and obesity; by citizens conducting grassroots advocacy and desiring to communicate park information to officials and fellow residents; by health care professionals participating in rapidly-growing park prescriptions initiatives that recommend parks as destinations for health promotion; and by real estate agents and investors working to showcase the park resources in a neighborhood. These and other user groups illustrate eCPAT's significant commercial potential and capacity for improving the value of public parks to community engagement, economic prosperity, and health.
The proposed research is relevant to public health because it will advance a tool and system for researchers, parks and public health professionals, and citizens that can aid in better evaluating, improving, and encouraging use of public parks for physical activity. Therefore, this project is relevant to the mission of NIH and the National Cancer Institute by enhancing park systems in communities and park use among diverse residents, which can lead to health benefits such as increased physical activity participation, reduced stress and illness, improved social connections, obesity prevention, and chronic disease mitigation.
