GI_Forum 2017, Volume 5, Issue 2, pp. 97-112, 2017/12/13
Journal for Geographic Information Science
This paper presents a conceptual framework for developing an online public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) to support community engagement in collaborative planning with stakeholders. Its basic characteristics include a lightweight, open internet standard data format GeoJSON (JavaScript Object Notation for geographical features), asynchronous communication between web browser and server, and open source server scripts using PHP and Python. This readily adaptable framework provides viewers with real-time processing and display of geo-comments, and preliminary descriptive statistics of participating social groups based on location and commentary themes. Visualizations are in the form pie charts and word clouds, which are understandable for a wide variety of non-expert GIS and/or urban planning users. This framework can also handle concurrent and multiple user requests. The advantage of this PPGIS web-based mapping application is that any web server can implement the workflow, and its real-time feedback feature supports the monitoring of social groups’ participation.
Keywords: PPGIS, participatory mapping, urban planning, river restoration, ecosystem services