The “Parks & Tech Challenge” is part of Pew’s Restore America’s Parks campaign, which seeks to conserve the natural and cultural assets of the National Park System by providing common sense, long-term solutions to the deferred maintenance challenge facing the National Park Service (NPS.)
NPS is entering its second century with billions of dollars in overdue repairs. With 12,500 miles of roads, 28,000 buildings, and 3,000 utility systems to maintain, our national parks currently face a maintenance backlog of $11.3 billion. “Parks & Tech Challenge” participants will focus on solving specific challenge statements, which were selected to address key problem areas facing NPS maintenance operations around the country. This Challenge will help find ways to use technology to maintain our parks for current and future generations of park-goers.
NPS is entering its second century with billions of dollars in overdue repairs. With 12,500 miles of roads, 28,000 buildings, and 3,000 utility systems to maintain, our national parks currently face a maintenance backlog of $11.3 billion. “Parks & Tech Challenge” participants will focus on solving specific challenge statements, which were selected to address key problem areas facing NPS maintenance operations around the country. This Challenge will help find ways to use technology to maintain our parks for current and future generations of park-goers.
About the Challenges
CHALLENGE 1: HARNESSING THE POWER OF DATA
How might we use technology to empower the National Park Service to collect, visualize, and utilize data in game-changing ways?
Focus Areas:
Focus Areas:
- How might we create tools to help NPS teams make more timely and accurate condition assessments to address repairs when they are at a more manageable and less costly state?
- How might we help maintenance teams and contractors, even those who are not technologically savvy, to input data and process work orders more easily and in real-time?
- How might we enable non-technical park users and staff to easily visualize park maintenance and performance data, both in individual parks and across the park system?
- How might National Park Service teams more effectively use performance-based data to improve processes and systems efficiency to maximize savings of time and money?
- How might we use geolocation technologies to enhance existing operations systems?
- How might we empower staff to improve and standardize internal communications and workflow?
- How might we use web services like videoconferencing to save staff travel time and budget, as well as increase alignment between park headquarters, regional offices, individual parks, teams and staff?
CHALLENGE 2: IMPROVING THE VISITOR EXPERIENCE
How might we use technology to update and optimize the visitor experience for park guests?
Focus Areas:
Focus Areas:
- How might we enable the National Park Service to reduce the need for certain structures that require ongoing maintenance and staffing (e.g. remote visitor centers).
- How might we create new visitor experiences that generate additional revenue that can be used for National Park Service maintenance?
- How might we enhance and expand the educational aspects of the visitor experience, both in-park and virtual or remote?
- How might we use technology to re-envision entrance stations and concession services in national parks to generate additional revenue?
- How might we engage visitors (e.g. as volunteers or data collectors) to help address deferred maintenance challenges?
- How might parks more powerfully communicate to the public and decision makers the story of deferred maintenance and its impact on a high quality visitor experience?
- How might we use park infrastructure (e.g., microwave radio backbones) to create communication networks that provide additional services to parks visitors?
