MyDynamicForest: citizen data on spatial patterns and motives of recreational use in Helsinki’s Central Park

In this paper we present a method for gathering up-to-date participatory data on soft mobility for various purposes, using a case study from Central Park in Helsinki, Finland. We describe the use of an innovative Public Participation GIS tool (MyDynamicForest) that combines smartphone GPS tracking, drawing of routes, and a questionnaire for collecting citizen data on recreational use for adaptive planning and management purposes. Our main finding is that by applying this method, together with information campaigns, informative data can be generated with relatively low effort, and postulate that specific groups could be targeted when needed. While this study focuses on movement in urban green areas, we suggest that a variety of planning and maintenance challenges could be addressed using this kind of data. Patterns and drivers of soft mobility (e.g. commuting) in cities or visitor movement in national parks and protected areas could be equally targeted. We encourage the use and testing of this methodology in various user-centred research and planning approaches.