Fairfax Topographic Accessibility Map

Abstract

For people with accessibility challenges, bikers, and runners planning their route, topographic maps provide more information than standard online mapping, allowing users to make more informed decisions to plan easier routes. However, most mapping services do not provide a proper or coherent view of topography. Using Fairfax County as a study area, we create a local street map with elevations represented by filled contours. The webmap is based on USGS Elevation data, boundary data from Fairfax County Open Geospatial Data, and additional boundary data from the City of Fairfax Geohub. All the data are collected for the year 2025. We utilize ArcGIS Online to create the webmap. Using ArcGIS Pro, we further process the elevation data to generate additional layers such as contours to better demonstrate terrain height at various intervals and a slope layer to illustrate the degree of terrain inclination. All these output layers, including the bike network, are exported to ArcGIS Online to configure the webmap application. The final interface is carefully designed to make the webmap accessible and understandable to everyone, without requiring any cartographic knowledge. As a next step, we plan to make this web app publicly available to gather user input on the usability of this web app on a grand scale beyond the Fairfax area. We intend to gain direct input from the goal userbase of bikers, walkers, and users with accessibility challenges, to further optimize and improve the webmap.