One staffer in Pittsburgh, Pa., took it upon himself to collect data on the city’s public trails during the pandemic in order to improve local infrastructure access and public planning.

Experts are continuously exploring what equity-focused urban planning looks like. For example, a recent California project launched a website to inform Los Angeles County residents about the available parks and amenities. Some local governments, like that of Buffalo, N.Y., have even turned to augmented reality to bring more people into their parks.

In Pittsburgh, a particularly unique project in this realm was led by the Department of Performance and Innovation’s senior enterprise applications administrator, Matt Jacob. He mapped all of the park trails in the city with his dog, Porter, and a GPS unit.