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The Joe Louis Greenway provides safe, recreational green spaces throughout the city. Here, a playground and covered seating area near the Midwest-Tireman section of the greenway draws neighborhood residents, children and visitors. Photo credit: A. Griego, SEAS Detroit Sustainability Clinic.
Project Dates: Fall 2023–Spring 2025
Client: City of Detroit Office of Sustainability - Joe Louis Greenway Project
SEAS Faculty Advisor: Derek VanBerkel, Assistant Professor of Geospatial Data Sciences, Conservation & Restoration
SEAS Students: Yidan Chang, Gail Lyons, Saj McBurrows, Chi Sun, Shiru Xu, Jing Yan
About the Client
The Joe Louis Greenway is a 27.5 mile recreational greenway that connects parks and neighborhoods across the city. The aim of the greenway is to ensure safe, car-free passage from the riverfront to the McNichols neighborhood via pedestrian paths, protected bikeways, and existing trails like the DeQuindre Cut. According to the city of Detroit’s website, this project strives to honor Joe Louis by providing equitable spaces through arts, programming, and economic opportunities for all.
About the Project
This Master’s Project centers on the ongoing development of the Greenway. Its primary objective is to address a critical question: how can equitable outcomes in multimodal urban trails and greenway projects be most effectively measured, both during their implementation phase and upon completion? The study includes a comprehensive examination of metrics related to equitable access in various dimensions, including transportation, recreational opportunities, public health, adaptive reuse, ecosystem services, and community engagement within the urban greenway planning context.
Leveraging previous master’s project insights, the Clinic project team will construct a community-centric digital monitoring system, with the hope of facilitating the assessment of potential equity related consequences, proactively addressing and mitigating them for the benefit of the Detroit community, and fostering inclusivity, transparency, and community participation in green development initiatives.
The team's final report and deliverables will be available on this webpage, upon the project's conclusion in April 2025.