As spatial information has become more accessible and cheaper, interest in using Geographic Information System (GIS) has increased in a variety of fields including geology, social science, land management, and urban design. GIS has been considered a tool to provide geographically more accurate information and maps, but there are still underexplored questions about whether GIS is a tool that encourages or hinders active public participation in community planning practices; or whether it only intensifies fact-based research methods rather than encouraging more comprehensive approaches. In order to address these questions, this practicum examines how GIS may be useful to encourage public participation, how information and knowledge collected from residents or a neighbourhood can be applied to developing a GIS model and how these data may be incorporated with community plan. To analyze and illustrate the processes, this practicum explores community gardens in the Daniel McIntyre and St. Matthews Communities in Winnipeg, Manitoba and aims to develop a GIS model to assist with the process of identifying the strategical locations for future garden sites. / October 2016

<p>The Geographical Information System (GIS) is a popular tool among landscape plannersas well as administration departments on both local as well as national level. It is asystem that can store and manipulate spatial data and its potential has increased ascomputers have grown to be more and more sophisticated. However the system is notwithout its controversy. Maps and geographical information has been accused of helpinggovernment maintaining its power thus leading to increased surveillance in society. As arespond to this critique Public Participatory Geographical Information System (PPGIS)was developed. PPGIS quickly grew and has been implemented in a wide variety ofprojects. The purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent these aspect plays a partin the implementation of GIS and PPGIS in Babati, Tanzania. More specifically, couldBabati handle a complex and resource demanding system such as GIS? To clarify howGIS could play a beneficial part in Babati development, a high rate in population growthas well as department clashes will be illustrating examples. In Babati there have beenrepeatedly conflicts between the water department and the Babati town council and someof them are directly related to communication issues. A hypothesis suggests that GIS haspotential in creating cohesion and a communication tool operating through geographicaldata. In generally results show that GIS could lead to better development, but at the sametime risk alienating people from participating in the decision making. Consequently ifGIS would be effective in Babati, it would have to be adapted to the region it is appliedto, funded on the towns’ resources and knowledge. If it does not it risks failing in thelong term as well as not living up to expected standard. PPGIS could possibly avoid someof the issues that might appear when implementing GIS but it is unlikely that it has all theanswers. PPGIS can improve the situation for marginalized people but a societyundemocratic issue is more likely to stem from several of different aspects.</p>

The Geographical Information System (GIS) is a popular tool among landscape plannersas well as administration departments on both local as well as national level. It is asystem that can store and manipulate spatial data and its potential has increased ascomputers have grown to be more and more sophisticated. However the system is notwithout its controversy. Maps and geographical information has been accused of helpinggovernment maintaining its power thus leading to increased surveillance in society. As arespond to this critique Public Participatory Geographical Information System (PPGIS)was developed. PPGIS quickly grew and has been implemented in a wide variety ofprojects. The purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent these aspect plays a partin the implementation of GIS and PPGIS in Babati, Tanzania. More specifically, couldBabati handle a complex and resource demanding system such as GIS? To clarify howGIS could play a beneficial part in Babati development, a high rate in population growthas well as department clashes will be illustrating examples. In Babati there have beenrepeatedly conflicts between the water department and the Babati town council and someof them are directly related to communication issues. A hypothesis suggests that GIS haspotential in creating cohesion and a communication tool operating through geographicaldata. In generally results show that GIS could lead to better development, but at the sametime risk alienating people from participating in the decision making. Consequently ifGIS would be effective in Babati, it would have to be adapted to the region it is appliedto, funded on the towns’ resources and knowledge. If it does not it risks failing in thelong term as well as not living up to expected standard. PPGIS could possibly avoid someof the issues that might appear when implementing GIS but it is unlikely that it has all theanswers. PPGIS can improve the situation for marginalized people but a societyundemocratic issue is more likely to stem from several of different aspects.

With the aim of assessing how to develop a socially sustainable mobility, this thesis applies a method of PPGIS (Public Participation Geographic Information System). The method of PPGIS was conducted through a survey aimed towards people who frequently visit the studied area (e.g., living, working, or studying there). The geographical delimitation of the study is set to Lindholmen, Gothenburg and focuses on the ongoing development of realizing the visions of the River City project (Gothenburg, 2012). Mobility in this work is understood as something more than just movement from point A to B and is mainly approached with support from Kaufmann’s (2002) theory of motility – the capacity to be mobile. Mobility that facilitates individual’s constraints and increases people’s motility is considered as socially sustainable. The concept of public participation is central, highlighting the importance of local knowledge and involvement in decision-making (Berman, 2017). The local knowledge, from contributors, was used as the basis of analysis for assessing mobility development. The participatory approach aims to improve neighbourhood quality, and to strengthen social inclusion. The PPGIS-process generated 173 responses. Recurring themes were suggestions for bicycle infrastructure and expanding the ferry lines. Negative inputs revolved around traffic volumes and construction. Future development in Lindholmen could focus on the attitudes and opinions of the contributors. The thesis concludes with a discussion on the collected data, stating that to improve what contributors complained about or asked for – in terms of traveling to, from, and within the area – is to take a step toward a more inclusive and accessible mobility. The contributions lie in the gathered empirical material, with specific suggestions to the mobility development of Lindholmen. Furthermore, the general debate on considering the needs and wishes of a place’s users highlights benefits with mobility development through public participation that should be considered in future projects or academic works.

The scale of the affordable housing problem in Canada is enormous and the situation is worsening due to a number of recent social trends. Continued wealth inequality, an aging population, increased immigration, changing marriage and independence trends, and increased part-time employment, have all contributed to a growing affordable housing problem in Canada. Certain groups such as single parents, recent immigrants, seniors living alone and tourism/seasonal workers are particularly vulnerable. In Canada, cities and tourism-based communities have the most pronounced affordable housing shortages, and this is expected to continue in the future. New and innovative methods of public participation are needed in dealing with the challenges of affordable housing development. Spatial information technology such as Internet-based collaborative geospatial software aims to improve the public participation process. This technology is able to use the Internet, spatial data and carefully designed interfaces in order to engage citizens and increase community participation for difficult planning problems such as affordable housing development. This thesis focuses on three objectives. The first objective is to define a collaborative, spatially-aware approach to create and assess affordable housing options in Collingwood, Ontario. This approach will use existing spatial data, participants with a vested interest in affordable housing, and an open source geospatial software tool called MapChat. The second objective is to implement the defined approach in a real-world setting in order to generate participatory input. The third and final thesis objective is to examine the spatial patterns of existing affordable housing and the locations generated in the study to determine sites that are most suitable for future affordable housing development in Collingwood. The results of the thesis show that the approach used provides a proof of concept in the use of Internet-based collaborative geospatial software that can be applied to any town in Canada. Although the approach involved a modest study design, it was able to offer a number of potential advances in planning the locations of future affordable housing. The approach was successful in creating a set of potential affordable housing options, was effective in assessing those scenarios and was feasible to implement in a real-world setting. In addition, the approach had high potential in the generation and management of information and in supporting community participation and empowerment.

The scale of the affordable housing problem in Canada is enormous and the situation is worsening due to a number of recent social trends. Continued wealth inequality, an aging population, increased immigration, changing marriage and independence trends, and increased part-time employment, have all contributed to a growing affordable housing problem in Canada. Certain groups such as single parents, recent immigrants, seniors living alone and tourism/seasonal workers are particularly vulnerable. In Canada, cities and tourism-based communities have the most pronounced affordable housing shortages, and this is expected to continue in the future. New and innovative methods of public participation are needed in dealing with the challenges of affordable housing development. Spatial information technology such as Internet-based collaborative geospatial software aims to improve the public participation process. This technology is able to use the Internet, spatial data and carefully designed interfaces in order to engage citizens and increase community participation for difficult planning problems such as affordable housing development. This thesis focuses on three objectives. The first objective is to define a collaborative, spatially-aware approach to create and assess affordable housing options in Collingwood, Ontario. This approach will use existing spatial data, participants with a vested interest in affordable housing, and an open source geospatial software tool called MapChat. The second objective is to implement the defined approach in a real-world setting in order to generate participatory input. The third and final thesis objective is to examine the spatial patterns of existing affordable housing and the locations generated in the study to determine sites that are most suitable for future affordable housing development in Collingwood. The results of the thesis show that the approach used provides a proof of concept in the use of Internet-based collaborative geospatial software that can be applied to any town in Canada. Although the approach involved a modest study design, it was able to offer a number of potential advances in planning the locations of future affordable housing. The approach was successful in creating a set of potential affordable housing options, was effective in assessing those scenarios and was feasible to implement in a real-world setting. In addition, the approach had high potential in the generation and management of information and in supporting community participation and empowerment.

Recent advances in information technology such as Web mapping and location-aware mobile devices have enabled non-experts to create, use and share volumes of spatial data in an increasingly accessible fashion. Such user-generated spatial data is usually referred to as Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). Two of the fundamental challenges associated with the exploitation of VGI relate to information overload and extraction of meaning. In order to deal with these challenges and improve the utility of VGI, this thesis investigates the potential of several interactive geovisualization techniques including filtering, dynamic spatial aggregation, linking and brushing, and tag-based visualizations. As a preliminary work to explore and structure the new research field of VGI, a framework of the different types of VGI is elaborated and followed by a review of the challenges and current solutions related to the utilization of VGI. Based on this review, a web-based prototype is developed to serve as a platform for the evaluation of selected geovisualization techniques. The prototype is then used in a series of workshops with rich citizen-generated data related to place-based community assets. The results of the case study show that the implemented geovisualization techniques enable users to find relevant subsets of information and to gain new insights on the data. Based on the potential shown by these results, future research directions are suggested.

Recent advances in information technology such as Web mapping and location-aware mobile devices have enabled non-experts to create, use and share volumes of spatial data in an increasingly accessible fashion. Such user-generated spatial data is usually referred to as Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). Two of the fundamental challenges associated with the exploitation of VGI relate to information overload and extraction of meaning. In order to deal with these challenges and improve the utility of VGI, this thesis investigates the potential of several interactive geovisualization techniques including filtering, dynamic spatial aggregation, linking and brushing, and tag-based visualizations. As a preliminary work to explore and structure the new research field of VGI, a framework of the different types of VGI is elaborated and followed by a review of the challenges and current solutions related to the utilization of VGI. Based on this review, a web-based prototype is developed to serve as a platform for the evaluation of selected geovisualization techniques. The prototype is then used in a series of workshops with rich citizen-generated data related to place-based community assets. The results of the case study show that the implemented geovisualization techniques enable users to find relevant subsets of information and to gain new insights on the data. Based on the potential shown by these results, future research directions are suggested.

Urban planning research and practice provides forceful evidence that urban place-making processes should not be driven by experts and planning professionals alone: they should also build on the experiential knowledge and values of lay citizens. Experience shows that the construction of the green, compact, and healthy city fostered by sustainable development policies requires considering how places are used and valued by all relevant stakeholders. SoftGIS is a form of web-based Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) that provides both a method and tools for mapping the values that people attach to places and for integrating these in professional urban planning practice. This report focuses on three softGIS tools: Mapita’s Maptionnaire, Spacescape’s Bästa Platsen, and SKL’s Geopanelen. Five case studies from Finland and Sweden are analysed so as to discuss some of the main substantive issues surrounding the uptake of softGIS applications urban planning practice and decision-making, particularly in the context of urban densification measures. In so doing, the extent to which softGIS can support dialogue between lay citizens and planning professionals is assessed, with a focus on urban ecosystem services in green areas. It is demonstrated that the potential of softGIS to help broaden communities of practice in urban planning hinges on a conducive institutional context for public participation and dialogue. Furthermore, it is argued that the use of softGIS tools is optimised when it is integrated in a comprehensive multifunctional toolbox that combines both physical and digital forms of public participation.

UNESCO Biosphere Reserves are examples of multifunctional landscapes recognized as sources of ecosystem services and laboratories for sustainable development. Participatory mapping of ecosystem services reveals where residents value ecosystem services in a landscape. This approach is expected to provide useful knowledge to inform land use decision-making. However, the knowledge about the spatial distribution of ecosystem service values in Biosphere Reserves and the usefulness of this knowledge for practitioners remains scarce. Through the application of Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) in the Kristianstads Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve located in Southern Sweden, this study identifies i) hotspots and ii) bundles of ecosystem service values, as well as iii) spatial patterns of ecosystem service values regarding the three Biosphere Reserve management zones. Complementary, this study assesses the potential usefulness of the PPGIS-derived knowledge by analyzing qualitative data from a workshop with practitioners of the Kristianstads Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve. My findings reveal distinct patterns of ecosystem service values across Kristianstads Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve that reflect the Biosphere Reserve zones’ management goals. The ecosystem service values were clustered around wetlands and the densest populated areas. Respondents mapped predominantly places for outdoor recreation, biodiversity, and places with existential value. The results highlight the importance of cultural and regulating ecosystem services to people in the Biosphere Reserve. Additionally, practitioners involved in Biosphere Reserve management emphasized the potential strategic usefulness of the PPGIS knowledge for their nature restoration work.