CYBORGS IN THE CITY exploring opportunities and challenges for web-based PPGIS and 3D cities Ian Babelon, PhD Candidate, Dept. Architecture and Built Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
[email protected] | @IanBabelon
WEB-BASED PUBLIC PARTICIPATION GIS
WEB-PPGIS EXAMPLES
• Increasingly used in urban planning to consult and engage residents • Canvas = Google Maps, Open Street Maps, Google Earth, Open Street Map 3D
• Interoperability (can import and export data in multiple formats, across devices) • Varying ranges of interactivity
MINDING THE GAPS 1. Few web-based PPGIS have been reviewed in the academic literature 2. Web-based PPGIS are theoretically underexplored. Their socio-technical dimension deserves further theoretical development 3. Lack of comparative studies of web-based PPGIS
• View information Above: “MinStad, CityPlanner” in Gothenburg Below: Left: “Bästa Platsen” in Täby, Stockholm region Middle: ”Social Pinpoint” in Newcastle, Australia Right: ”Carticipe” in Avignon, France
• Easy-to-use online mapping surveys, in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Flexible basemap overlays (development proposals, master plans etc.)
INTERACTIVITY EXAMPLES • Comment places and planning proposals • Suggest alternative land uses (write, draw, demolish, insert objects, upload media) • Comment and rate other ideas • Express views and preferences • Share comments on social media
CYBORGS IN THE CITY METHODOLOGY • Semi-structured interviews or questionnaires with planning experts (n = 4) • Review of academic and commercial literature, policy documents • Simple inductive content analysis • Personal communication with PPGIS experts (n = 6+) • Pending survey of selection of planners in Sweden, UK, France and Australia
Tool design & affordances Organisational capacity
Three main categories emerged from a thematic clustering of the preliminary data:
1. Tool design = technical considerations, Affordances = functionalities and use values for end-users 2. Organisational capacity = institutional and organisational parameters, including individual capacity 3. Governance = wider urban planning and governance context
Governance
• Pending comparative usability workshops
Acknowledgements. PPGIS images courtesy of Agency9, Spacescape, Social Pinpoint & Repérage Urbain. Icons: @Freepik (Flaticon). Terminator: @PhotoGiddy (Flickr), non commercial CC. Read more in: Ian Babelon, Alexander Ståhle & Berit Balfors (2016): Toward Cyborg PPGIS: exploring socio-technical requirements for the use of web-based PPGIS in two municipal planning cases, Stockholm region, Sweden, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
Web-PPGIS are cyborgs… •
as socio-technical hybrids (Gandy 2005, Swyngedouw 1996)
•
as hybrid ways of knowing (Haraway 1990, Wilson 2009)
