Geotechture Powers Atlanta’s Next-Generation Parks & Recreation Decision Platform Ahead of the 2026 World Cup
- Geotechture
- May 10
- 4 min read
As Atlanta prepares for unprecedented global growth and visibility ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Geotechture Founder Dr. Alyssa Combs has helped lead the vision, GIS architecture, and platform experience strategy behind the City of Atlanta’s next-generation Parks & Recreation Opportunity Explorer (PROE) Tool — a transformative investment and planning platform designed to support smarter, data-informed decision-making across the city.
Atlanta is entering one of the most transformative periods in its history.
As the city prepares to welcome the world during the 2026 FIFA World Cup while continuing to experience rapid development, infrastructure expansion, and evolving community needs, the importance of innovative planning and strategic investment has never been greater.
To help support that future, the City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation is developing the Parks & Recreation Opportunity Explorer (PROE) Tool — an advanced geospatial investment and planning platform designed to help city leadership, stakeholders, planners, and communities better understand infrastructure conditions, capital investment trends, accessibility, neighborhood dynamics, and long-term planning opportunities across Atlanta.
The initiative reflects a growing movement among cities to leverage advanced data analytics, geospatial intelligence, and interactive planning technologies to support smarter and more connected decision-making.
Reimagining the Future of the PROE Tool
The PROE Tool builds upon the foundation of the City’s original DPR EDT Tool developed alongside ActivateATL. However, the next-generation platform represents a significant transformation in both analytical capability and overall user experience.
Rather than simply migrating the previous application into a newer environment, the project focused on identifying opportunities to modernize the platform, enhance usability, expand analytical depth, and create a more immersive and intuitive planning experience for both technical and non-technical users.
The vision was not simply to create another dashboard — it was to create a dynamic decision-support ecosystem capable of helping users explore how infrastructure, investment, accessibility, and neighborhood conditions intersect across the city.
Geotechture’s Role in Shaping the Platform
At the center of the initiative is Dr. Alyssa Combs, Founder of Geotechture, who served as the Lead GIS Solution Architect responsible for helping shape the vision, analytical framework, user experience, and overall platform architecture for the next-generation system.
Geotechture partnered with Colbi Collab, led by Diamond Spratling, to provide advanced GIS architecture, spatial analytics, application development, and platform modernization expertise for the initiative.
Dr. Combs played a major role in helping reimagine how the platform would function and visually communicate information to users. From the overall interface structure and multi-page experience to the analytical workflows and interactive mapping environment, her vision helped shape the transformation of the platform into a more scalable, modern, and immersive planning tool.
The redesigned experience was intentionally developed to help users navigate multiple layers of information more intuitively while transforming complex spatial data into more accessible and actionable planning intelligence.
Moving Beyond Traditional Dashboards
Unlike traditional GIS dashboards that primarily focus on visualization alone, the PROE Tool was designed as an interactive geospatial experience that supports exploration, analysis, and strategic planning.
The platform integrates multiple dimensions of analysis into a unified environment, including:
Parks and Recreation Conditions
Historical Capital Investment
Level of Service Accessibility
Neighborhood and Community Indicators
Community Perception Insights
Opportunity Prioritization Scores
Through its multi-page structure and integrated analytical workflows, the platform allows users to move between high-level citywide perspectives and more detailed neighborhood and site-level analysis.
This layered experience creates a more connected understanding of how planning, infrastructure, and investment decisions influence communities over time.
Introducing the ICON Model & Capital Investment Intensity Index
One of the most significant contributions to the project was the development of the Infrastructure, Capital & Opportunity Nexus (ICON) Model, created by Dr. Combs.
The framework introduces a tiered and weighted methodology designed to help evaluate opportunity prioritization through the relationship between infrastructure conditions, investment activity, accessibility, and neighborhood dynamics.
The platform also introduces the Capital Investment Intensity Index, another analytical framework developed through Geotechture’s work on the project. The index evaluates capital investment activity in relation to surrounding population dynamics, helping identify investment concentration trends and long-term infrastructure patterns across the city.
To better align with the City of Atlanta’s evolving planning initiatives, the PROE Tool evaluates communities at the Neighborhood Statistical Area (NSA) level, creating stronger alignment between neighborhood planning efforts, parks and recreation strategy, and future city development goals.
Together, these frameworks help transform the platform from a visualization tool into a more comprehensive infrastructure intelligence and investment planning system.
Why This Matters for Atlanta’s Future
For Dr. Combs, the project represents more than technology. It represents a shift in how cities can leverage geospatial intelligence, spatial analytics, and user-centered design to better understand long-term infrastructure and community needs.
“The PROE Tool creates a more connected framework for understanding how infrastructure, investment, accessibility, and neighborhood conditions intersect across Atlanta,” said Dr. Combs. “This work is about helping cities make more informed and strategic decisions while creating a platform experience that makes complex information more accessible, interactive, and actionable.”
The project is currently entering its beta testing phase with stakeholders and community partners and is expected to conclude development in June 2026.
As Atlanta continues to position itself as a global innovation and cultural hub, projects like the PROE Tool demonstrate how advanced geospatial technology, strategic planning, and collaborative partnerships can help shape the future of cities.
With international attention increasingly focused on Atlanta in the years ahead, the PROE Tool represents a major step forward in how the city approaches infrastructure intelligence, investment strategy, and future-ready planning.
Helping Cities Reimagine Planning Through Geospatial Intelligence
As cities across the country continue navigating growth, infrastructure demands, investment strategy, and evolving community needs, platforms like the PROE Tool demonstrate the growing importance of data-informed and geospatially driven planning environments.
Through its work on the PROE initiative, Geotechture continues to expand its focus on helping governments, organizations, and institutions transform complex spatial data into strategic planning intelligence and interactive decision-support systems.
Geotechture is actively exploring opportunities to partner with additional cities, agencies, and organizations interested in developing customized prioritization platforms, geospatial planning tools, infrastructure intelligence systems, and interactive mapping experiences tailored to their own strategic goals and community needs.
Contact Geotechture for partnership inquiries, collaboration opportunities, or additional information.
About Geotechture
Geotechture is an innovation-driven geospatial technology company specializing in GIS strategy, spatial analytics, immersive technologies, interactive mapping applications, and data storytelling. The company works with governments, organizations, and institutions to transform complex information into actionable insight and impactful digital experiences.
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