Waterfront Parkcluster ·Ravine SliversMarkland Wood (12)confidence moderatereal Toronto data

Trca Lands ( 87)

Waterfront Park, near the bottom of the city overall (score 23, rank ~8th percentile). Strongest: natural comfort; weakest: connectivity.

Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026

Trca Lands ( 87) scores 23.2 / 100. Strongest dimensions: natural comfort and enclosure / eyes on park. Weakest: amenity diversity (0). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (100). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.

Best for:waterfront recreationlong walks

Area · 0.41 ha

Vitality Score

23/100

Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 63%

Data Confidence

23.2 / 100

Citywide

8th

of all 3,273 parks

Among Waterfront Park

11th

same primary typology

Expected for similar parks

median in small Waterfront Park waterfront (n=112)

Performance gap

-7

raw − expected · context confidence high

modest underperformer

Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.

Explain this score

Where did the 23 come from? Each weighted contribution against a neutral 50 baseline. Green = pushed up; red = pulled down.

Download JSON

What pushed this score up or down vs a neutral 50weight × score

Edge Activation0 · p46

-12.5

Amenity Diversity0 · p51

-10.0

Connectivity23 · p11

-5.3

Border Vacuum Risk100 (risk)

-5.0

Natural Comfort83 · p93

+4.9

Enclosure / Eyes on Park62 · p44

+1.2

Sum of contributions = the headline score. A negative bar means that dimension dragged the park below the city-wide neutral baseline.

Why this park works

Trca Lands ( 87) works because its natural comfort score (83) is in the top tier (57% tree canopy provides real shade; it sits inside the ravine system).

What limits this park

Trca Lands ( 87) is held back by connectivity (23, bottom quartile); border-vacuum risk is also elevated (100).

Most distinctive characteristic

Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high natural comfort (83, top decile).

Jacobs reading

Trca Lands ( 87) sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat — moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.

Tradeoffs

Natural comfort (83) significantly outpaces connectivity (23) — restorative but hard to reach for daily use.
The park is enclosed by buildings (62) but the surrounding streets are quiet (edge activation 0) — frame without animation.

Performance in context

Reads as a modest underperformer relative to comparable parks (gap -7; cohort: small Waterfront Park waterfront).

Typology classification

confidence 85%

Waterfront Parkalso reads as Ravine / Naturalized Park

Classified as Waterfront Park: 29% water surface inside park. Secondary read: Ravine / Naturalized Park (100% ravine overlap, 57% canopy).

Edge Activation

25% weightpartial 60%

0.0 / 100

Within 100 m of the park edge: 3 active uses (transit_stop, retail) and 11 dead/hostile uses (highway, parking_lot). Active edges keep "eyes on the park" through the day; parking lots, blank institutional walls, rail and highway frontages drain street life.

Source: OSM POIs (amenity/shop) + Toronto Building Footprints + land use

Connectivity

20% weightmeasured 85%

23.3 / 100

Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 0 mapped paths/walkways and 2 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 2 street intersections within 100 m; 10 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~431 m of perimeter. low edge density — significant superblock penalty applied. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.

Streets within 25 m0

Intersections within 100 m2

Paths/walkways (50 m)0

Sidewalk segments (50 m)2

Transit stops (400 m)10

Estimated entrances0

Edge connections / 100 m perimeter0.00

Park perimeter431 m

Source: Toronto Centreline V2 + Pedestrian Network + OSM transit stops

Amenity Diversity

20% weightinferred 30%

0.0 / 100

No amenities recorded — score is 0 until inventory is loaded.

Source: Toronto Parks & Recreation Facilities + OSM amenity tags

Natural Comfort

15% weightmeasured 75%

82.6 / 100

Natural-comfort components for this park: 57.1% estimated tree canopy; 100.0% inside the ravine system; 28.6% water surface. Reading: ravine-cooled. Source coverage: treed_area, ravine, waterbodies. Impervious surface is approximated (Toronto's authoritative layer ships only as a raster GeoTIFF).

Canopy coverage57.1%

Canopy area0.24 ha

Inside ravine system100.0%

Water surface inside park28.6%

Nearest water (if outside park)0 m (inside)

Estimated green71.4%

City-mapped trees inside polygon0

Tree density0.0 / ha

Cover diversity (Shannon, 0–100)89.6

Sample points used28

Source: Toronto Treed Area + Ravine + Waterbodies + Street Tree Inventory

Enclosure / Eyes on Park

10% weightmeasured 80%

61.8 / 100

8 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (2 mid-rise, 6 low-rise, 0 tower); avg edge height 9.4 m (~3 floors); 1.9 buildings per 100 m of 431 m perimeter — moderate frontage density; edges are at a Jacobs-scale walkable mid-rise (3–7 floors); no towers immediately adjacent. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 2 mid-rise edge buildings.

Buildings within 25 m8

Buildings within 50 m8

Avg edge height9.4 m (~3 floors)

Tallest edge building36.5 m

Mid-rise (3–7 floors)2

Low-rise (< 3 floors)6

Towers (≥ 13 floors)0

Frontage density1.86 per 100 m perimeter

Mid-rise share of edge25%

Tower share of edge0%

Blank-edge share (proxy)38%

Park perimeter431 m

Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)

Border Vacuum Risk

10% weightpartial 60%

100.0 risk

Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: Dundas Street West, Dundas Street East, Dundas Street West, Dundas Street East, Dundas Street West, parking_lot. Jacobs warned that highways, rail, parking lots and blank institutional edges act as "vacuums" — they suppress foot traffic and isolate the park from its neighbourhood.

Source: Toronto Street Centreline (highways) + rail layer + OSM landuse + building footprints

Equity Context

contextinferred 15%

50.0 / 100

Equity Context requires inputs not yet loaded for this park (Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles). Score is held at a neutral 50 with low confidence — read with caution.

Source: Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles

Amenities (0)

No amenities recorded for this park.

Nearby active-edge features (33)

highway — Dundas Street West18 m
highway — Dundas Street East24 m
highway — Dundas Street West34 m
parking lot36 m
highway — Dundas Street East38 m
highway — Dundas Street West44 m
highway — Dundas Street West53 m
highway — Dundas Street East53 m
highway — Dundas Street East57 m
transit stop — Dundas Street At West Mall Crescent68 m
retail — Plato's Closet74 m
highway — Dundas Street West87 m
highway — Dundas Street West92 m
retail — Cedar House Spa98 m
parking lot111 m
transit stop115 m
highway — Dundas Street West116 m
parking lot122 m
parking lot122 m
transit stop — Neilson Drive123 m
transit stop — Dundas Street At Neilson Drive126 m
retail — Car Squad127 m
highway — Dundas Street West128 m
parking lot137 m
parking lot143 m
parking lot152 m
restaurant — Bounty Family Resturant154 m
parking lot157 m
retail — Mr. Lube + Tires181 m
transit stop — Dundas Street At 2200 Dundas Street184 m
transit stop — Dundas Street West Of Neilson Drive186 m
parking lot192 m
parking lot193 m

Park profile

Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.

Citywide percentile ranks

Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.

Overall vitality
8th
Edge activation
46th
Connectivity
11th
Amenity diversity
51th
Natural comfort
93th
Enclosure
44th

Most similar parks

Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.

Etobicoke Creek RavineWaterfront Park23
Rouge River WatercourseRavine / Naturalized Park32
Camborne ParketteRavine / Naturalized Park33
Highland Creek RavineWaterfront Park32
Massey Creek RavineWaterfront Park32

Most opposite parks

Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.

ALEX WILSON COMMUNITY GARDEN - Open Green SpaceUrban Plaza59
Leslie Grove ParkParkette68
Bellevue Square ParkCivic Square66
Sonya'S ParkUrban Plaza60
Kew GardensNeighbourhood Park71

Human activity signals — not available

No activity signals have landed for this park yet. The model has scored its physical form but it can’t yet say how often it’s programmed, photographed, or walked through. See /data-ethics for what we will and will not collect.

Does this score feel accurate?

Your read of Trca Lands ( 87)matters. We’re testing whether the model lines up with how people actually use the park. Submissions are stored locally; no account needed.

Tell us how this park feels

We measure structure (canopy, edges, connectivity). You measure feeling. Both matter — and disagreement is itself useful civic data.

What would improve this park?

Generated from the weakest measured dimensions — a starting point, not a prescription.

Activate the edges: encourage cafés, retail or community uses on the streets that face the park; replace blank or parking-lot edges where possible.
Add or open more entrances and improve sidewalk continuity around the park. More permeability means more spontaneous use.
Diversify what people can do in the park — playground, washroom, water, shade, performance, sport, garden — even small additions raise this score.
Mitigate border vacuums (highways, rail, parking) with active programming on the still-permeable edges and treat the hostile edge as a design challenge.

Data sources

City of Toronto Open Data — Parks (Green Space)
Polygon boundaries, official names, types.
Parks & Recreation Facilities
Inventory of in-park amenities (washrooms, fields, rinks…).
Toronto Pedestrian Network
Sidewalk segments around and through parks; estimated park entrances.
Toronto Centreline V2
Street segments + intersection nodes near park edges; trails and walkways.
Toronto 3D Massing
Building footprints + heights for edge-building counts, frontage density, and tower-in-the-park risk.
Toronto Treed Area
Tree canopy share inside park polygons via stratified-grid sampling.
Toronto Waterbodies & Rivers
Water surface inside parks + nearest-water distance for cooling.
Ravine & Natural Feature Protection
Ravine overlap as a cooling / natural-comfort signal.
Toronto Street Tree Inventory
Tree count + density inside park polygons.
Neighbourhood Profiles
(Pending) Equity context proxy.
OpenStreetMap (Overpass API)
Cafés, restaurants, retail, transit stops, parking, highways, rail.