Improving public participation in spatial planning with Web 2.0 tools

Land is an inseparable part in planning and developing a region. Land management must be carried out carefully, effectively, and efficiently regarding the principles of spatial planning in order to achieve general prosperity and social justice based on the 1945 Constitution. Spatial planning cannot work alone. It requires active contribution from all parties to improve its quality. One of the significant foundations in achieving optimum and ideal spatial planning is the enforcement of transparency principle. Due to the importance of this principle, this study attempts to discuss: (1) how is the principle of transparency interpreted in spatial planning, and (2) how is the ideal application of transparency principle as a means of public participation in spatial planning? The principle of transparency is very important for the public as it gives information regarding spatial planning, including the planning, utilization, and management. The objective of spatial planning is creating spatial congruence and easy access to discover the functions of the land used as stated in the regional or urban spatial planning.

The book entitled “Contemporary challenges of spatial planning in tourism destinations” compares the different contexts for spatial planning and how they approach tourism-related issues in selected European countries, namely Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Turkey. Each chapter starts with a presentation of the overall profile of the investigated country. The chapters then consider the following contexts of spatial planning of tourism destinations: legal regulations of spatial planning, long-term strategy for spatial planning, public participation in spatial planning, and the main challenges of spatial planning of tourism destinations. The publication ends with an overarching discussion focusing on the various challenges that affect sustainable spatial planning of tourism destinations in the countries under consideration. The book was edited by Tomasz Napierała and Katarzyna Leśniewska-Napierała (both from University of Lodz), and Giancarlo Cotella (Politecnico di Torino). The publication is the output of the international project SPOT – Sustainable Spatial Planning of Tourism Destinations, supported by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Programme (2019-1-PL01-KA203-064946).

The comprehensive spatial planning is a complex long-term plan prepared to achieve sustainable urban growth.To strive for an optimal drafting process, the level of participation and collaboration of each stakeholder element must be measured to avoid potential problems among stakeholders in the future.The present study aims to assess the process of stakeholder collaboration and participation in spatial planning for the Talang Kelapa urban area, Banyuasin Regency, South Sumatra Province, Indonesia.The research was conducted by qualitative interviews followed by the Structural Equation Model (SEM) to analyze the main indicators of collaboration and the level of participation of the stakeholders involved.Furthermore, Confirmatory Factor Analysis is used to measure the level of validity and reliability of each indicator used.The results of the study show that nine indicators determine the success of the participation and collaboration during spatial planning, namely (1) the history of collaboration, (2) the existence of collaborative groups on the environmental dimension, (3) mutual understanding (in the dimension of member characteristics), ( 4) flexibility (in the dimensions of structure and process), (5) communication intensity (in the communication dimension), (6) goal achievement, (7) shared vision (in the goal dimension), (8) adequacy of funds, and (9) human resource improvement (in the resource dimension).The level of participation and collaboration of stakeholders in the studied area is in the medium category meaning that the relationship between each stakeholder is still formal and has not occurred optimally.The results could be a first step to figure out where the participation and collaboration between stakeholder and optimally conduct the suggested model to perform spatial planning.The aim is to make the best spatial planning and avoid the future problem in Talang Kelapa.

Background This study aims to assess the relationship between public participation in project planning and the sustainability of foreign-funded water supply projects in Juba City. Methodology The study employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches to collect data. In total, a sample of 94 respondents participated in the study. Data collection methods used were questionnaires, interviews, and documentary reviews. Quantitative data was coded and entered into SPSS and analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis based on the research objectives. Results Pearson’s correlation coefficient for public participation in project planning and sustainability of foreign-funded water Sources in Juba City was r = 0.539**, with a probability value (p = 0.000) that is less than 0 .05 level of significance showing a strong relationship between participation in planning and sustainability of foreign-funded Water Sources Conclusion It was concluded that public participation in project planning has a strong positive relationship with the sustainability of foreign-funded water Sources. This conclusion was based on the Pearson correlation coefficient which is at 539** with a significance level of 0.000. Therefore, if public members are involved in the planning stage such as needs identification, work plan development, and technology selection, there will be improved sustainability of foreign-funded water Sources. Recommendations The study recommends that public members should be involved in drafting work plans to follow while carrying out foreign-funded water Source activities. This will promote community involvement and participation which will enhance ownership and sustainability of foreign-funded water Sources.

Public participation is an increasingly popular topic in China, but more attention needs to be given to stakeholders’ willingness to participate. This paper reviews case studies to identify incentives and disincentives for the public and local governments to be involved in public participation in planning. The identified incentives and disincentives are classified into individual, social, civil society, and governmental levels. The study finds that personal interests primarily incentivise the public, while local governments lack essential incentives. Governmental-level factors influence both parties, emphasising the need for political approaches to enhance public participation in planning practices in China.

Social interaction as apprenticeship in thinking: Guided participation in spatial planning.

Since 2002 the authors have successively developed “Children’s Maps in GIS”, a method for children’s participation in spatial planning. Their studies show that 10-15 year-olds are capable of reading maps and using a GIS-application for communicating their interests in a stable and useful manner. The purpose of this article is to discuss the first stages of implementation in a real world project, in relation to ICT. The authors report experiences from a Swedish municipality using Children’s Maps in GIS in a survey with over 600 children as part of a comprehensive planning process and give examples of how data can be visualized. A significant digital divide between different parts of the administration is noted. In the ongoing development into an Internet version of the method the authors aim to increase the access to the GIS-application and develop standard procedures for categorizing and analyzing data.

Assessing resource-use efficiency of land use

Despite many novelties in participation: participatory budgeting, citizens jury, deliberatice poll etc. the engagement of different stakeholders’ groups in the decision making processes concerning detailed planning issues (local spatial management plans, water management plans, the preservation management plans of the Natura 2000 sites) is usually based on the organization of open discussion meetings. The study looks at the social consultations regarding acceptance of local spatial management plans managed by Poznań City Hall and consultations concerning the preparation of water management plans managed by Regional Water Management Board in Poznań. The comparative analysis served to exhibit similarities and differences between the processes in terms of legal conditions, the organization of meetings, the length and the scale of the process and the actors engaged.

Public participation is a critical aspect in the planning, also spatial planning. Its role is changing dramatically as it is present not only in social development but also tackles issues connected with cultural, educational. The most important element in participation is the will to do it – to engage in the process of planning the of life, of new urban communities, and how it is taking place in the planning process at different levels/ scales. There is a need to strengthen the public participation in the Egyptian context. Consequently, there are many cases in public participation related to the different levels (metropolitan, city, action area), connected to urban issues, besides, the sectoral issues related to economic development and societal needs. Thus, there is still a gap between existing national policies and their implementation at local level. The important question is how to achieve the local needs with strategies prepared on upper-level agencies. The main problem, in addition to the environmental issues is the regional disparities, poverty illustrated by low human development index. The research aim is to determine general framework and rules of citizen participation in Egypt by illustrating many cases from Egyptian context, and to examine the process and assess their effectiveness and the paper will end with the policy changes.

The aim of the research was to investigate the use and potential of Planning Support Systems (PSS) in public participation within spatial planning in Polish local governments. Data from 718 local spatial planning departments, collected using CATI method, reveals limited current use of PSS tools in public participation, primarily passive online document viewing. Despite this, there is a growing potential for online methods, such as interactive meetings, necessitating PSS tools for real-time interaction. The study highlights a strong adherence to statutory consultation forms, suggesting a need for PSS development focused on legal requirements in public participation.

The licensing paradigm in spatial planning development policy plays a crucial role as a regulatory instrument for controlling land use. However, if this function is applied partially and lacks public participation, the effectiveness of law enforcement in a spatial planning becomes weak. This article aims to analyze the role of licensing in the implementation of spatial planning development policies and formulates a collaborative model to enhance public participation. Using a normative approach with a juridical-normative method, this study examines licensing regulations based on applicable laws and the factors influencing their implementation. The findings indicate that policy inconsistencies, weak law enforcement, and low public participation are the main obstacles to effective spatial governance. Therefore, a new paradigm that emphasizes participation is needed to be institutionalized in order to plan, to utilitize, and to control the use of land. By optimizing the licensing function not only as a control tool but also as an empowerment of social participatory instrument, spatial planning policies can become more inclusive and sustainable.

This chapter presents Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) methods and tools based on open data, public input and Web 2 technologies, employed in participatory urban planning processes. The recent focus on sustainable urban development and livability has increased the demand for new data sourcing techniques to capture experiences, preferences and values of urban dwellers. At the same time, developments of geospatial technologies and social media have enabled new types of user-generated geographic information and spatially explicit online communication that is place-specific and often content-rich. As a result, new methods for engaging large groups of individuals that supplement, and sometimes, supplant traditional methods (e.g. public meetings) have emerged. Despite different application domains (e.g. land use and zoning, transportation, urban revitalization, green infrastructure and landscape audit), many participatory planning processes have shared common steps, in which PPGIS/Geoweb methods have been applied including (1) collection of values and preferences to inform the creation of plan draft and (2) discussion and feedback from participants on the plan draft. This chapter presents two methods and the corresponding tools that have been used by the authors in a number of participatory planning cases between 2014 and 2017. The cases concerning various planning problem and scales have been situated in two metropolitan areas of Poland.

This paper focuses on the public participation in environmental planning. After the decade for inaccessible information related to the decision taken, actually, the program of public participation is the reference of all the decision making process. However, there are some factors that limit this process, such as poverty, illiteracy, ignorance and often the social inequality. Therefore, this study focuses first on the benefits of public participation in environmental planning, then the involvement of the local population, and finally the decision making access using a case study of Madagascar.

The article presents modern international approaches to public participation in Sustainable Transport System planning. It discusses the causes of social conflicts during the implementation of transport infrastructure projects using the example of implementation of several Polish strategic road infrastructure projects. It provides the assessment of the form, scope, and scale of stakeholders’ involvement in the decision-making process. Among mitigation measures, the authors propose a model solution based on a comprehensive approach to public participation in road infrastructure planning in smart cities and smart villages within a Sustainable Transport System. The proposed idea involves a model of multi-criteria spatial analysis using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) developed in the geographical information systems (GIS) environment, which—apart from technical-functional, environmental, cultural, economic, financial, and social criteria—also encompasses preferences expressed by local community representatives. The model includes eight stages of public participation in the decision-making process, involving all the rungs of a ladder of citizen participation. The presented solution departs from typical social participation methods used in road infrastructure planning processes.