Development of 4D Public Participation GIS to Improve Communication of City Transformation Processes

Abstract

Based on a case study of the city transformation of Kiruna we concluded that the information about the urban planning processes; (1) was scattered and hard to understand and (2) not communicated properly for the public to be able to participate. Here public participation geographical systems (PPGIS) and modeling of a project delivery timeline, also known as 4D, are possibilities to improve communication with stakeholders in urban planning and construction processes. As a result, we set up three requirements for the development of a 4D PPGIS communication platform. Firstly, time-space urban planning information must be available and understandable for the citizens to comprehend. Secondly, the communication platform must support two-way asynchronous communication for collecting public opinions and proposals. Finally, the user interface, operations and management of the platform must engage citizens to participate in the urban planning process. An experimental 4D PPGIS based on Google Earth and Facebook services was developed to visualize geo-referenced past, current and future urban activities and support public discussions regarding planning proposals. The prototype is currently being evaluated in the first iterative cycle of the information system development method.