Portland State University Geography Department

In 1990 Dr. Poracsky hosted an informal urban Greenspaces seminar that attracted park and greenspace planners from throughout the metropolitan region. Poracsky and his graduate student Paul Newman created the region’s first Greenspaces map using color infrared phorography in 1989.

The Institute has had a longstanding partnership with PSU’s Geography Department.

In addition to producing the first ever regional Greenspaces map, the PSU Geography Department co-hosted several Country in the City symposia with the Audubon Society of Portland that laid the groundwork for creation of a regional parks and Greenspaces system.

The Urban Greenspaces Institute continues its collaborative relationship with Dr. Poracsky and other PSU faculty from its offices in Geography’s Center for Spatial Analysis and Research, The Center for Spatial Analysis and Research (CSAR) serves researchers and organizations in the greater Portland area for projects involving four broad areas of expertise: Cartography; Geographic Information Systems (GIS); Remote Sensing; and Education.

CSAR-affiliated faculty are actively engaged in delivering education in CSAR-related technologies through the undergraduate and master's curriculum of the Geography Department, the GIS Graduate Certificate Program, and specialized short courses. CSAR is thus an important extension of the academic and community service missions of the University.

"Marked economy in municipal development may be effected by laying out parkways and parks to embrace streams that carry at times more water than can be taken care of by drain pipes of ordinary size. Thus brooks or little rivers which would otherwise become nuisances that would some day have to be put in large underground conduits at enormous expense, may be made the occasion for delightful local pleasure grounds or attractive parkways."

-- John Charles Olmsted, 1902 Report to Portland Park Board