In collaboration with the Providence Stormwater Innovation Center (PSIC), DWELL Lab is developing an augmented reality (AR) walking tour to highlight the center’s work with urban stormwater infrastructure. The tour takes place along the 1.25 mile loop around Roosevelt Lake in Roger Williams Park (RWP) in Providence. The first iteration of the tour is nearing completion and will be finalized in December of 2024. However, we expect to continue to grow and develop the content for years to come, reflecting the dynamic efforts made to improve water quality at RWP as a “living lab,” or an open innovation ecosystem.

Plagued by poor water quality and eutrophication, many of the water bodies at RWP are remediated by PSIC’s stormwater best management practices, or BMP, sites. In fact, there are 35 structural and non-structural stormwater BMPs installed in Roger Williams Park, at least five of which are located at Roosevelt Lake. The paved path along Roosevelt Lake is ADA-accessible and open to the public.
Because of its proximity to stormwater BMPs and its ADA-accessible walking trail, Roosevelt Lake is the focus of the AR walking tour. The tour will include multiple AR objects, including renderings of structural stormwater BMPS—one of which is linked below as a QR code. An updated list of proposed Points of Interest (POIs) and route may be found on the project’s shared Google MyMap. This walking tour not only celebrates PSIC’s work, but also informs the public about stormwater BMPs and serve as an educational tool for Roger Williams Park staff.

The catalyst grant provided funding for a graduate student researcher to collaborate on the project, developing several of the POIs on the tour. The funding came at a crucial time in the project's development. We could not have made the progress that we have accomplished without the CI's support.

We have developed most of the project, with the hope of completing the tour over this summer. This project will be part of several planned/future articles, a book under advanced contract with Palgrave MacMillan, and has also helped us identify a process and methodology that has led our team to seek funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Advancement Grant opportunity this summer (2025).