Community Participation and Geographic Information Systems - Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Web-based PPGIS in the United Kingdom Richard Kingston 8.1 INTRODUCTION The Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) have created many oppor-tunities for those involved in GIS and decision support research. Recently many GIS products and applications have appeared on the web (Carver and Peckham 1999), and GIS applications are becoming more frequent in many fields (Doyle et al. 1998). These systems tend to vary in nature from simple demonstrations to more complex on-line GIS and spatial decision support systems. With the increased availability and use of GIS applications, prev-ious criticism of GIS as an elitist technology (Pickles 1995) may no longer be valid. GIS and the WWW are ever evolving technologies with the poten-tial for increasing public involvement in environmental decision-making. To gain an understanding of the potential benefit of web based PPGIS, a real decision-making problem was used to develop, live test, and monitor pub-lic participation in local environmental decision-making. Traditional meth-ods of public participation were examined by working closely with several organizations in the United Kingdom (UK). The specific aims of this research have been to: · develop an example web based-PPGIS using a real decision problem, · analyse user responses to web-based PPGIS in order to evaluate the potential of these systems to democratize the decision-making process, and · theorize the future role of web-based PPGIS in improving public involvement and policy maker accountability in environmental deci-sion-making. Opportunities for direct public involvement in environmental decision-making is currently limited in the UK. This is despite the fact that public participation in environmental decision-making in the UK has a relatively lengthy history. Ever since the first Town and Country Planning Act in 1947, varying degrees of public participation have existed although it was not © 2002 Taylor & Francis 102 R. Kingston until 1969 (Skeffington 1969) that widespread public participation became embedded in the process. Given the appropriate political will and sufficient public interest, the theory, methods, and practical applications developed here can contribute to radical improvements in future decision-making processes and policy formulation. 8.2 TRADITIONAL VERSUS ON-LINE PUBLIC PARTICIPATION With traditional methods of public participation, those who are interested attend public planning meetings which often take place in an atmosphere of confrontation. This can discourage participation by a less vocal majority resulting in public meetings that are dominated by vocal individuals who may have extreme views. These views may not represent the opinions of local people who may resist expressing their concerns, opinions and view-points, and who therefore ‘rarely if ever emerge as definable actors in the development process’ (Healey et al. 1988). Planning meetings often take place in the evening, limiting the number of people who are able to attend. The actual location of and physical access to public meetings can further restrict the possibility of widespread attendance, particularly for those who are disabled or without access to transport. In contrast to traditional methods, new web-based forms of participation are beginning to evolve in the UK. Although these are in the early stages of development in the UK, experience from North America (Howard 1998) suggests that there are many advantages to web-based approaches to par-ticipation, including: · the meetings are not restricted by geographical location, · access to the information is available from any location that has web access, · the information is available at any time of the day, thus avoiding the problems associated with holding meetings in the evenings, and · the concept of ‘24/7’ access opens up opportunities for more people to participate. The use of the WWW has the potential to break down some of the barriers to participation by taking away certain psychological elements which the public face when expressing their points of view at public meetings. For example, with a web-based system the public can make comments and express their views in a relatively anonymous and non-confrontational manner compared with the traditional method of making a point verbally in front of a group of relative strangers. As Graham (1996: 2) argues, the Internet generates ‘a new public sphere supporting interaction, debate, new © 2002 Taylor & Francis Web-based PPGIS in the UK 103 forms of democracy and “cyber cultures” which feed back to support a ren-aissance in the social and cultural life of cities’. To achieve greater involvement in environmental decision-making, the public need to be provided with systems that allow them to create virtual spaces. Such systems should allow participants to proceed through the fol-lowing four stage model: 1 explore the decision problem, 2 experiment with choice alternatives, 3 formulate one or more decision choices, and 4 provide feedback and evaluation of the system. Exploration of the decision problem is an essential part of the user’s learn-ing process. Having direct and easy access to the information relating to a decision problem is a key element in learning about its various facets. In this context, information should be available on the spatial and aspatial aspects of the decision problem, and should convey the historical and policy con-text of the decision problem as well as its physical, social, cultural and eco-nomic setting. Existing community or individual ideas and perspectives on the decision problem should be presented where known. Through learning about all aspects of a decision problem, the user can begin to modify exist-ing ideas and generate new ones that can be fed back into the system. Experimentation with choice alternatives is also an essential part of the learning process. These ‘What if?’ scenarios are fundamental to many analyses undertaken by a GIS. With this in mind, web-based GIS should also be capable of allowing the user to: · test basic theories or hypotheses regarding their decision alternatives, · develop decision models or pathways applicable to the decision prob- lem, and · approach consensus or compromise through comparison and trade-off with users’ ideas. Formulation of decision choices should aim to maximize consensus and min-imize conflict. This is often difficult to achieve particularly if the decision problem is complex, but it may be possible to identify the best compromise solution and thereby maximize the acceptability of the final decision. The ability to formulate decision choices based on exploration and experimenta-tion is an essential part of any web-based decision support system. Finally, the system should allow for feedback and evaluation by the pub-lic. Feedback by the public throughout the decision process can inform the local authority how and why particular choices are made. Also in a reverse scenario, the local authority can provide feedback to the public so they know how and why certain decisions are taken. This two-way process © 2002 Taylor & Francis 104 R. Kingston keeps the local planning authority aware of how users are formulating their decisions. This will also allow designers to improve future systems. 8.3 VIRTUAL SLAITHWAITE The Planning for Real® (PfR) exercise arranged in the village of Slaithwaite in June 1998 by the Colne Valley Trust (CVT), a local community action group, emerged as a good case study to investigate the potential of a web-based PPGIS. PfR was developed as a means of getting local people more involved in local planning decisions through interaction with large scale physical models of their community. The Slaithwaite PfR exercise was coor-dinated for the CVT by planning consultants from The Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation1 (NIF) and was partially funded by the local council. A 1:1000 scale three dimensional model of a 2 km2 area of the village was constructed by CVT and the planning consultants with the help of local school children. This was used as a focus for local discussion about planning issues within the village. Local people were invited to register their views about par-ticular issues by placing flags containing written comments at any location on the model. The results of this exercise were then collated by the NIF consult-ants, and subsequently fed back into the planning process through appropri-ate policy documents and plan formulation mechanisms. One of the main aims of CVT was to consult with local people to find out their views, and involve them in local decision-making. The main features of the PfR method include: · providing a large scale model of the chosen area on which the public can place ideas and comments about their community, · offering a completely open-ended approach in which anything can be said or suggested, · allowing the community to assume leadership of the input process, · providing a mechanism for input open to all members of the commun-ity at a time when most can participate, and · providing information and local opinion that can be of use to both the community and local authorities in future planning. The Slaithwaite PfR exercise provided an ideal opportunity to develop and live test a simple PPGIS that mirrored the physical PfR model. This system was called ‘Virtual Slaithwaite’ and was still available on-line at the time this book was published. The virtual version of the exercise was launched on the web and displayed alongside the physical PfR model at a local vil-lage event organised by CVT called ‘Shaping Slaithwaite’. Eight networked Windows NT machines with Netscape Communicator installed were made available for public use in the local sports hall. This helped to overcome problems associated with access to GIS technology. © 2002 Taylor & Francis Web-based PPGIS in the UK 105 8.3.1 System design The Virtual Slaithwaite PPGIS was arguably among the first such system available to the general public in the UK as part of a real public participa-tion process. The web browser window consists of four frames, each con-taining particular pieces of information (see Figure 8.1). The system design revolves around a Java map application called GeoTools (Macgill 2000). Using this Java map applet, users can view a map of Slaithwaite, perform zoom and pan operations to assist in visualization and navigation, perform simple spatial queries (e.g. ‘What is this building?’ or ‘What is this road?’), and then make suggestions or comments about specific features identified from the map. All user input is stored in the web access logs for future analysis and feedback into the planning process. In this manner a commun-ity database is created, representing a range of views and feeling about planning issues in the village. User responses were handled using perl server-side scripts and html forms. The map applet displays ESRI® ArcView shape files and allows the retrieval of attribute information from the associated dbf file. Figure 8.1 Virtual Slaithwaite website. (Source: http://www.ccg.lecds.ac.uk/slaithwaite) © 2002 Taylor & Francis ... - tailieumienphi.vn