Little Red River Park's new locally designed Application

Integrated Resource Management instructor, Joanne Marchand and students, Kevin Benmerrouche and Camille Crosland were the driving force behind developing an interactive Application for the Little Red River Park. The Application development was funded by Sask Lotteries and the Saskatchewan Polytechnic Applied Research Division. Little Red is located just north of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and is home to a vast network of trails which are used consistently throughout the seasons. With nearly 500 hectares of natural area, patrons of Little Red River Park use these trails for walking, cycling, hiking, cross country skiing, snowshoeing and other activities. 

There has been an increasing demand for a common mapping system that would include all the amenities and park trails in a simple and accessible way. 

“There are established trails and lots of little connecting trails, but no easy way to see where they all lead! I wished there was an Application that could show your immediate location, the trails, buildings and landmarks,” said Joanne Marchand, instructor at Saskatchewan Polytechnic who facilitated the project.

Benmerrouche and Crosland set out to create a mapping system “application” (APP) using the combined technologies of GPS (Global Positioning Systems), GIS (Geographic Information Sciences) and computer programming that would be readily available to everyone on their mobile devices with the tap of a touch screen. They worked through the summer and fall of 2019 mapping the trails with GPS technology and working with the different sports clubs which had already laid the groundwork by mapping and naming trails.

Matthew Thompson and Kevin Boechler from the Saskatchewan Polytechnic Computer Systems Technology Department and Ivan Kosoletov, the GIS Supervisor at the City of Prince Albert also made valuable contributions to the Application.

“The Funding and collaboration between the Sask Polytech departments, the City of Prince Albert, the sports clubs and our students were key to make a success out of this project,” said Joanne Marchand

This project has a practical application, meant to benefit many families and visitors from the city and from afar and raise the profile of Little Red River Park. The Application can be found on the city website: www.citypa.ca/littlered and can be saved on a smartphone as an APP by adding it to your home screen. The Application shows the usage, difficulty, width, directions, information and seasonal usage of each trail.

The full list of Contributors to the Application:

For more media inquiries please contact:

Tim Yeaman

Parks Manager, Community Services

Phone: (306) 953-4802

Email: tyeaman@citypa.com