Melissa Thrush's UWF GIS Online Blog: GIS 5100 - Final Project - Spatial Access to AZA Accredited Zoos in Metro Chicago

The metro Chicago area is extremely fortunate to be geographically located near two distinct zoos. The Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Illinois and the Lincoln Park Zoo in downtown Chicago are both accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The Brookfield Zoo is set within a 216-acre nature park and is home to over 2,000 animals and is also an accredited arboretum. The Lincoln Park Zoo is a free admission, 35-acre zoo residing within its namesake’s 1,208-acre lakefront park along Chicago’s north side and his home to over 1,000 animals. I wanted to perform a spatial accessibility analysis of this population’s access to these two accredited zoos. As noted by a 2016 article in The Hill, an American political journalism newspaper, “zoos, aquariums and conservation parks are essential if we want to preserve the magnificent creatures with whom we share the Earth” (Ganzert, 6/14/16). The information provided by an accessibility study could provide valuable information to these two zoos for marketing and outreach programs. To assess the spatial accessibility to these zoos I used 2010 US Census tract and population data for Cook and DuPage counties.

My analysis found that over two-thirds of the populations of Cook and DuPage counties have access to two distinct, accredited zoos within 15-20 miles of the centers of 2010 census tracts. With such access it is hopeful that the residents of these counties will visit these “agents of conservation” as described by Rabb & Saunders guest essay in the Zoological Society of London’s International Zoo Yearbook over a decade ago (2005). The goal is for experiences at these venues to inspire and motivate humans to value animals, creatures and natural resources and take action to ensure their preservation for the benefit of us all.

One of the limitations of this analysis is the use of the centroid of each census tract to calculate the distance to each zoo. This is not an exact measurement of distance from each residence nor does it take into account travel time or transportation method.

For future work regarding this analysis I would consider the following: five of the US Census tracts in the chosen study area have 2010 population counts of zero and two of those have acreage over water. In retrospect I should have removed these tracts before analysis. If time permitted I would have continued statistical analysis and created CDF scatterplots for other demographic data, such as race/ethnicity and poverty levels. I would also expand the study area to include all counties considered as “Chicagoland” by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce (Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lane, McHenry, and Will). Additionally, I would add the John G. Shedd Aquarium to the Zoo feature class as it, too is an accredited member of the AZA and provides another venue for the residents of metro Chicago to encounter and appreciate wildlife.

While I am deeply saddened about the recent passing of my uncle, Dr. George B. Rabb, President Emeritus of the Chicago Zoological Society, I am truly honored to have gotten to know him and his life’s work more intimately through this final project.