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Sacred Spaces — Mining Tourism Innovation Summit 2025 (Group 13)

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Mesas and reclaimed mine terraces at dusk Raw photo location: hero.jpg

Three-day sprint focus: Map and prototype visitor experiences that honor Indigenous sacred spaces while reimagining retired mining infrastructure for community-driven tourism.

Project brief (PDF) · View code · Explore data

About this site: This is a public, in-progress record of Group 13's work at the Mining Tourism Innovation Summit. Edit directly in GitHub: open a file → pencil icon → Commit changes.

How to use this page (for the team)

  • Edit this file: docs/index.md → ✎ → update text → Commit changes.
  • Add visuals: upload to docs/assets/ and reference like assets/your_file.png.
  • Keep text concise: think "slide deck"—pair each section with one strong image.

Day 1 — Define & Explore

Focus: shared vision, guiding questions, and grounding in place.

Our product 📣

  • A visitor journey map that centers cultural protocols and storytelling cues for sacred landscapes reclaimed from mining.
  • A concept brief summarizing experience principles, target audiences, and infrastructure priorities for pilot sites.

Our question(s) 📣

  • How can tourism highlight the sacredness of post-mining landscapes without commodifying ceremony or knowledge?
  • What routes, overlooks, or story stops best connect visitors to community priorities?
  • Which datasets can reveal tensions between access, safety, and cultural stewardship?

Hypotheses / intentions 📣

  • Co-designing itineraries with cultural advisors leads to higher trust and adoption than repurposing mining assets alone.
  • Combining visitor mobility data with cultural overlays can guide where to invite or discourage foot traffic.
  • Success looks like a blueprint communities can adapt quickly for seasonal programming.

Why this matters (the “upshot”) 📣

Respectful tourism can generate revenue for land care and cultural programming. By highlighting sacred spaces and the ecological recovery of mined lands, we can counter extractive narratives and elevate Indigenous-led interpretation.

Inspirations (papers, datasets, tools)

Field notes / visuals

Day 1 field sketch of potential visitor path Raw photo location: day1_whiteboard.jpg Caption: Drafting the flow of arrival, welcome, and guided movement between reclaimed terraces and cultural touchpoints.

Different perspectives: Capture any tensions between maximizing access, protecting ceremony, and maintaining safety near legacy infrastructure.

Day 2 — Data & Methods

Focus: assemble evidence and prototype analytics/visuals.

Data sources we’re exploring 📣

  • BLM Recreation Sites + Trails — baseline access layers for former mining parcels.

Heatmap of trail usage intersecting cultural buffers Raw photo location: explore_data_plot.png Snapshot: Overlaying foot-traffic estimates with 1 km cultural buffers to flag sensitive corridors.

  • Tribal Historic Preservation GIS — confidential features summarized to stewardship zones.
  • Visitor Mobility Tiles — aggregated cellphone mobility to spot high-interest approaches.
  • Mine Closure Registry — locate infrastructure suitable for adaptive reuse.

Methods / technologies we’re testing 📣

  • Accessibility routing with slope analysis and hazard buffers in Python/GeoPandas.
  • Scenario scoring using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) on community priorities.
  • Lightweight storytelling prototypes with Observable notebooks and Mapbox embeds.

Challenges identified

  • Differing spatial resolutions across cultural and mobility datasets.
  • Need to balance public transparency with sensitive cultural information.
  • Limited time to validate scenarios with on-the-ground partners.

Visuals

Static figure

Composite suitability surface for visitor paths Raw photo location: figure1.png Figure 1. Priority corridors emerge when cultural, ecological, and accessibility scores align.

Animated change (GIF)

Temporal animation of visitation pulses Raw photo location: change.gif Figure 2. Seasonal visitation pulses highlight when to schedule guided programs vs. quiet restoration windows.

Interactive map (iframe)

Open full map

If an embed doesn’t load, drop the direct link underneath so visitors can open it in a new tab.

Final Share Out — Insights & Sharing

Focus: synthesize, highlight outcomes, and outline next steps.

Group 13 team photo on reclaimed terrace Raw photo location: team_photo.jpg

Findings at a glance 📣

  • Community-defined quiet zones overlap with only 12% of current visitor paths—clear opportunity to reroute signage.
  • Adaptive reuse of haul roads can cut shuttle travel times by 35% while maintaining cultural buffers.
  • Storytelling nodes anchored around ancestral narratives increase dwell time in low-impact areas.

Visuals that tell the story 📣

Suitability map for guided path pilot Raw photo location: fire_hull.png Visual 1. Highest scoring corridor for a pilot walk blends existing roads with ceremonial overlooks.

Storyboard panels for the visitor journey Raw photo location: hull_panels.png Visual 2. Draft narrative arc from arrival to reflection featuring cultural advisors’ voiceover prompts.

Dashboard summarizing stewardship indicators Raw photo location: main_result.png Visual 3. Prototype dashboard balancing access, cultural safeguarding, and ecological healing metrics.

What’s next? 📣

  • Host a listening session with cultural advisors to validate scenario scoring and refine buffers.
  • Build a lightweight StoryMap to share the visitor journey concept with regional partners.
  • Scope funding pathways for signage, shuttle retrofits, and land stewardship jobs tied to tourism revenue.
Project brief PDF
Read the brief 		View shared code
View code 		Explore data
Explore data

Team

Pod Focus Contact Slack
Coordination & Partnerships Align summit deliverables with cultural advisors and land managers sacredspaces@esiil.org #sacred-spaces
Data & Analysis Spatial processing, suitability modeling, and scenario scoring data@sacredspaces.org #sacred-spaces-data
Storytelling & Design Narrative development, visuals, and visitor journey prototyping storytelling@sacredspaces.org #sacred-spaces-story

Storage

Code

Keep shared scripts, notebooks, and utilities in the code/ directory. Document how to run them in README files or within each script so teammates and visitors can reproduce your workflow.

Documentation

Use the docs/ folder to publish public-facing updates. Longer internal notes can live in documentation/; summarize key takeaways here once they are ready for the public site.

Persistent storage

For large datasets or outputs, save to the CyVerse group folder: i:/iplant/home/shared/esiil/Innovation_summit/Group_13. See Save to persistent storage in the navigation for GoCommands examples.

Cite & reuse

If you use these materials, please cite:

Sacred Spaces Sprint Team. (2025). Sacred Spaces — Mining Tourism Innovation Summit 2025 (Group 13). Retrieved from https://github.com/CU-ESIIL/sacred-spaces-mining-tourism-innovation-summit-2025__13

Unless noted otherwise, content is released under CC-BY-4.0. Review dataset licenses on the Data page before reuse.