Wakefield Spring Redesign Civic Engagement Report 2017

The results show the importance of leveraging civic intelligence for architectural redesign

Word tree connecting survey response regions and keywords in response to the Question: “How do you think the spring fits into the community of Wakefield/La Pêche and surrounding area?”

Milieu’s online civic engagement platform was deployed to collect citizen feedback to reimagine the Wakefield Spring, upgrade the infrastructure and address community concerns.

This report captures the analysis and results of collected public feedback through the online survey from February 15th, 2017 to March 15th, 2017.

Location of the Wakefield Spring: https://goo.gl/maps/aRhznbrSt6w

“The Wakefield Spring fits into the community by offering a free source of potable water while the structure itself fits in by looking somewhat like the covered bridge.” — Wakefield resident

Demographics from the survey data

There were 111 English survey responses and 10 French survey responses. People have been coming to the Wakefield spring on average 20 years, with some as many as up to 50 years. 66% of users visit year round. Most people visit weekly.

Targeted sentiment

Using IBM Alchemy Natural Language Understanding API, survey responses were read and interpreted in a similar manner to the human mind. Targeted Sentiment was calculated by identifying keywords in unstructured comments.

Questions surrounding the positive or negative aspects about the spring were asked.

In your use of the spring, can you tell us about the positive aspects that you enjoy?

“It brings community together — a social place to see neighbours and community folk. It’s a landmark of the community. It provides an essential service for people who’s drinking water is not potable.” — Survey respondent

In your use of the spring, what are the negative aspects that you would change if you could?

“poor lighting at night, difficult to park, dangerous ice build up around the spring in the winter so it is very slippery.” — Survey respondent

The bar graph displays targeted sentiment collected from responses to the two questions above

Summary of collected public feedback

Overall, participants of the survey, both residents of Wakefield and visitors from adjacent regions expressed the importance of continued free access to the water. Many have suggested that the water quality testing data should be published regularly on-site and online. Winter ice build up, and road traffic safety are top concerns and should be addressed. Some participants have suggested that donations can be collected towards maintenance of the structure.

Read the full report at: https://milieu.io/en/wakefield

Questions, comments or concerns please get in touch with: Friends of The Wakefield Spring at: sourcewakefield@gmail.com. Follow the Wakefield Spring redesign at www.sourcewakefield.ca