7. Trail Planning

The design of a walking or hiking trail is based on fine scale topographic conditions and varied criteria specific to the particular context such as aesthetics, views, construction cost, and environmental sensitivity. As a result trail planning is typically a product of expert knowledge, field surveys, and creative design decisions—often made on site. However, when high resolution data is available geospatial modeling can be used to identify routes optimized for travel time and suitability. To design trails with Tangible Landscape we can hand place waypoints on a physical model and then the optimal network connecting the waypoints is computed in near real-time. This approach—hand placing tangible waypoints and computationally networking the waypoints—combines creative, collaborative decision making with mathematical optimization. In this chapter we explain the theory and methodology for designing trails with Tangible Landscape and then discuss a case study, the design of hiking trail scenarios for Lake Raleigh Woods, North Carolina.