Luskin Center for Innovation: Smart Parks- a toolkit

Join the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation in welcoming Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris to discuss her research and new report, SMART Parks: A Toolkit.

The evening event will include a reception, presentation, panel discussion, author Q&A, and book signing.

Featured speaker: Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris

Panelists: Tamika Butler, Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, Norma E. Garcia, Los Angeles County (moderator); and Colin Martin, Cisco.

ABOUT

Public parks have been a central facet of urban life for more than 100 years. During that time, technology has become integral to our lives – when traveling, at work, at home, and at play. However, technology has not historically been used in park settings. The UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation’s recently released SMART Parks Toolkit empowers city planners, designers, and park managers to change that in order to better serve communities. As more people move into cities (about 80% of the U.S. population lives in cities today), urban parks become ever more important because they can improve public health, environmental sustainability, and economic growth. But with a changing climate and over-stretched municipalities, stress on the public park system is increasing. New (and unconventional) tools to help address these stresses, such as technological innovation, are critical. SMART Parks: A Toolkithighlights new approaches to addressing typical park problems.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris is Associate Provost for Academic Planning at UCLA, Associate Dean of the Luskin School of Public Affairs, and Professor at the UCLA Department of Urban Planning. She has published more than 100 articles and chapters and five books: Urban Design Downtown; Jobs and Economic Development in Minority Communities; Sidewalks; Companion to Urban Design; and The Informal American City. Her research has been supported by the California Air Resources Board, Caltrans, California Department of Parks and Recreation, Mellon Foundation, Haynes Foundation, Gilbert Foundation, Archstone Foundation, Mineta Transportation Institute, and AARP. She has served as a consultant to the Transportation Research Board, FTA, SCAG, South Bay Cities Council of Government, LANI, Project for Public Spaces, Greek Ministry of Education, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, Dutch Technology Foundation, and as nominator for the MacArthur (“genius”) awards.