Ground Truthing in Brooklyn : BK Navy Yard to Newtown Creek

For Walking the Edge, the collaborators, led by the Department of City Planning, devised a series of segments, 10 miles per segment, for all 520 miles of the coastline, guided by NYC Open Data and the DCP’s own database. The segments were assessed for accessibility, availability of restrooms, etc. You can click on each segment to see a route. The research team for Walking the Edge traversed these segments, often on foot and sometimes partially by car, to assess the actual physical experience of moving through the recommended routes.

NOTE: This map is not a recommendation or proposal, but rather a series of observations of what might be possible.

There are 52 segments of ten miles each on the route map. We did some digging ourselves, but we would love to hear your thoughts too.

Use this form to add your own truth about the waterfront segments on the route map. We will add your observations to the map!

While we went through our ground-truthing process, we utilized the Ramblr app to capture our impressions and observations. 

Click on the images below to gain access to some of our ground-truthing process.

Brooklyn: Sims to IKEA (on foot)

The Bronx: Hunt’s Point to High Bridge (on foot)

The Bronx: Hunt’s Point to Pelham Bay Parkway (by car and on foot)

Staten Island: Full perimeter (by car and on foot)

Open Data datasets used for the Route Map:

Waterfront Access Map Data: Shapefile

Waterfront Access Map Data: Geodatabase

Waterfront Access Plans

New York City Water Trail (Kayak and Canoe Launch Sites)

Borough Boundaries (Water Areas Included)

Parks Properties

Directory Of Toilets In Public Parks

Neighborhood Names GIS

NYC Zoning Tax Lot Database

Questions we considered while ground-truthing:

  1. What forms/lines of public transport did you use to travel to the route segment? Overall travel time

  2. What was your exact route? (every team should have a printed map of the segment on which to draw their path and make notes)

  3. Walk details

    a. Weekday? Weekend?

    b. Time of day?

    c. Beginning/Ending time

    d. Weather conditions

  4. Did you make stops along the way? Where/why?

  5. As you walk, please try to embody all mobilities (walking styles of all ages, assisted mobilities, etc) and consider the following:   

    a. What obstacles (to moving) did you encounter?

    b. The sensory landscape (sight, smell, sound, touch)

    c. The emotional landscape (what did you feel where, why?)

    d. Potential impacts to personal and group safety

    e. Any other potential deterrents to continuing the walk

  6. What changes over time did you experience?

    a. Walking surface

    b. Landscape

    c. Other surprises

  7. Unique characteristics of the segment:

    a. Landmarks

    b. Environmental features

    c. Historic features

    d. Future possibilities

  8. What is/are the truth(s) of this segment of the waterfront? Why?

As you go through your own ground-truthing process, please visit the newly-released NYC Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, to see the what our collaborators at the Waterfront and Open Spaces division of the NYC DCP have put together as goals for the next 10 years of the NYC waterfront, using community-based and subject expert research.