INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION How to Improve Participatory Spatial Planning with Visualization Techniques by Jeroen Verplanke Vancouver, Canada 20 June 2005

Introduction – welcome  Hi, I’m from ITC in the Netherlands  The buzzword “participation”  The role of participation in planning  Added value of visualization  Uses of “participatory visualization” in planning As much interaction as possible (crucial) Opportunity to learn from each other

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION About ITC

What’s ITC all about?  Established in 1950  Largest international institute for Postgraduate training in the Netherlands  Autonomous organisation  Aegis of the Minister for Development Cooperation and  The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands

What’s ITC all about?  Staff  staff core activities: 140 fte  support staff core activities: 45 fte  general support staff: 55 fte  45 nationalities  Students  600 p/year  PhD researchers  50  Alumni  17,000 mid-career professionals  165 countries

Mission  Provide international education through knowledge exchange  Capacity building  Institutional development  For and in economically and technologically less developed countries

Geo-information science and earth observation  Combination of tools and methods for the  collection  storage and  processing of geo-spatial data and for the dissemination and use of these data and of services based on these data

ITC’s core activities  Education / training 50%  Diploma course  Postgraduate diploma  Degree courses  Short courses  Refresher courses  Joint education courses  Distance education courses In the Netherlands and abroad Photo: Gerard Kuster

Origin of ITC students by continent Asia 6,970 (41%) Africa 5,186 (31%) Europe 2,567 (16%) America 1,798 (11%) Australia & Oceania 174 (1%) Total Students : 17,233 Total Countries : 169

ITC’s core activities  Research and Development 25%  Research projects  PhD studies  Visiting Scientists

ITC’s core activities  Project services 25%  Institutional development  Contract training  Contract research and development  Advisory services

Six Educational programmes:  Process and context  Geoinformatics  Geo-Information Management  Applications  Urban Management  Natural Resources Management  Water Resources and Environmental Management  Applied Earth Sciences

Urban Mangement (UPLA)  Topics:  Urban Infrastructure Management  Urban Land Administration  Urban Planning  Levels:  Certificate  Postgraduate diploma  MSc degree

Back to business…

How to:  increase Participation through Visualization  Visualize Participation in Spatial planning  communicate interactively with maps

Rationale Inform policy makers and strategy developers on ways to increase communication and participation with city dwellers using visualization tools that can applied in various stages of a collaborative spatial planning process

Objectives  Get informed about visualization tools for participatory spatial planning  Learn about specific examples from developing countries  Understand what makes success or failure in Participatory Mapping?  Exchange experiences  Practice interactive sketch mapping

Flow of the Morning  The current practice of Participation and Participatory use of GIS (PGIS)  How visualization tools affect participation by citizens and decision-makers.  Open discussion on the functionality of (tools for) participation in spatial plan development  Interactive sketch mapping and how it can be used in designing and discussion spatial plans. (depending on group size)

And not to forget YOUR expectations  Why are you here?  Why follow this seminar?  What do you expect to get out of this course?

Discussion topics  Public Participation in Spatial Planning  Visualization tools for participatory spatial planning  Participatory GIS as a communication tool  The WWW as suitable communication tool

Concepts  Concepts behind PSP :  Participation,  Participatory (spatial) planning,  Local-level community spatial planning,  Local or indigenous knowledge  Indigenous spatial knowledge (ISK).

Tools and techniques  participatory spatial data acquisition, participatory mapping, PRA.  GPS, mobile GIS, Arc-Pad, field data recording.  visualisation of spatial relationships, spatial conflicts, interactive mapping.  conflict management processes, e.g. types of conflict resolution, and policy instruments.  Applications of participatory mapping & P-GIS to e.g. conflict mapping, customary entitlements to land & NRM; community environmental mapping.

‘Good Governance’  Accountability - transparency & visibility of government decisions and policies,  accountability mechanisms,  responsiveness to lower levels  community involvement a means to generate accountability.  Accountability not the end in itself, a means of supporting higher-level social-political goals of:  Legitimacy, Participation  Respect for Rights, Empowerment  Equity (not simply, equality), and  Competence (including efficiency).

UNDP - Good Governance  UNDP (1997) core characteristics of GG:  Participation; Rule of law; Transparency; Responsiveness; Consensus-orientation; Equity; Effectiveness and efficiency; Accountability; Legitimacy; Strategic Vision; Resource Prudence; Ecological Soundness; Empowering and Enabling; Spatially grounded in communities.

Why ‘Participation.?  What are the strengths / positive points about Participatory (Neighbourhood or Community) Planning ?  How did it all start?

Rationale for Participatory Planning oDemocratic decision-making + equity component. oLocal accountability. oEconomic & Technical efficiency of activities. omobilise under-utilised local physical, human, institutional, and knowledge resources. oPolicy impact (effectiveness) improved better feedback – implementation & policy more adaptive & responsive to internal conditions. oStrengthen understanding of local variability in natural & social ecology. oLong/term view & stability of policy programmes, and commitments to sustainable management.

Historical Phases of “Participation”  "Self-help" schemes 1960s-1970s  Labour inputs of local people in land clearing, tree planting, ditch digging, etc., "blood & sweat".  Needs Assessment late 1970s-1980s  Problem identification & prioritising by local people.  Identification of potential Solutions 1990s  Identification of solutions by local people,  Incl. use indigenous / local knowledge

Intensity of Participation - “Ladder”  Information Sharing,  communication between outsiders and local people, primarily technical information, e.g. needs assessment.  Consultation  Outsiders refer certain issues to local stakeholders, for further details, or refinement, or e.g. for prioritising.  Involvement in Decision-making by all actors,  Involve local people in decision-making, policy-setting.  Initiating Actions  Initiatives of local people who are empowered e.g. self-mobilisation to perform activities

What is wrong with Participation?  What are the deficiencies / weaknesses / problems with Participatory local planning ?

Obstacles to Participation in Spatial Planning.  External political resistance to 'real' local empowerment.  internal local holders of power will not give it up.  breadth of needs, priorities, opinions, etc. between actors in the local community is too wide.women especially are frequently excluded from early stages of decision-making, etc.  minorities - e.g. ethnic groups, castes, - are frequently excluded.  there is an absolute scarcity of resources to be shared - and, overall there is poverty.  unequal distribution of access to power - ultra-poor, elderly, children, handicapped, refugees, inarticulate.  serious time constraints involved in processes of participation.  participation may be costly.

How to be Participatory?  What approaches and methods to encourage / promote a participatory planning approach ?

Local K is a key to PSP Local Knowledge, IK, ITK, ISK  Local Knowledge is a resource that disadvantaged & marginalised groups control - whilst land, property, resources, labour are appropriated;  resource needing little investment for realisation;  reflects capability, competence of local community  places community on equivalence with outsiders  local knowledge is operational.

Identification / Selection of ‘Stakeholders’  Select by a consistent variable? – e.g. number of people involved, or economic power and/or economic vulnerability, or level of knowledge, or political influence?  Do parties identify and select themselves? – or are they “obvious” ?  How do categories of parties change with geographical scale?  Arguments for proactive, positive discrimination to support weaker, less articulate actors.

Gendered Space  Ignorance – (huh?)  IK of resources & resource management  Invisibility –  Spatial scale of women´s activities  Exclusion  Women´s spaces, restricted spaces

Promoting 'Participation‘ in Geo- Information terms  Facilitation  elicit (not extract!) local knowledge of ITK and NRM,  school children assist with GPS, participatory mapping, for baselines & on-going monitoring. Leading to  Collaboration [activities under ‘facilitation’],  e.g. participatory assessment of needs, collaborative spatial problem analysis, joint prioritising of interventions, joint map legend Leading to  Empowerment [activities under collaboration],  + importantly: “taking over” sustainably  self-determination & local initiative in all stages.

What is P-GIS?  P-GIS as form of ‘participatory spatial planning’ (PSP) which makes use of maps and GI output, especially GIS.  Core is ‘degree of participation’ in planning,  essential issues are: processes, activities, instruments, and procedures that involve participation?  P-GIS is ‘doing (technical) GIS with some degree of people’s participation –  Participation could be simply data collection, or, choice of data inputs, data layers, analysis, data queries.  Core activity is the GI outputs (maps, etc.),

A Description of Participatory GIS  Starting points from  GISDECO 2004 (Malaysia)  PPGIS 2004 (Wisconsin)  Mapping for Change 2005 (Nairobi)

A Description of Participatory GIS  Participatory GIS (PGIS) is a practice developing out of participatory approaches.  PGIS combines a range of GI management tools to represent peoples’ spatial knowledge.  Making GIT&S available to disadvantaged groups in society to enhance their capacity in generating, managing, analysing and communicating spatial information…

 PGIS practice is geared towards empowerment.  A good PGIS practice is embedded into spatial decision-making,  PGIS is flexible, depends on facilitation and skills and builds essentially on visual language.  The practice often relies on the combination of ‘expert’ skills with socially differentiated local knowledge… A Description of Participatory GIS

Good Practice Sequence in PGIS Pre Conditions  Purpose purpose purpose Partnership Positively discriminate Power Products Participation is learning Participation is slow PRA principles – flexibility, innovative, involved, triangulation

Comments so far?  Public Participation in Spatial Planning  Participatory GIS

Participatory land use planning  Visualizing local knowledge  From sketch maps to GIS

Making sketch maps

A process of many hours… A process with many stakeholders… A process of iteration…

Redrawing = Re-discussing

Aerial photos leave less room for disagreement

Final product?

Mental Maps – Los Angeles white elite, black, hispanic

Rosario, Argentina

Your mental map  What’s your mental map of your surroundings?  Can you draw a map of Vancouver?  Try it yourself on a sheet of paper  Everybody can draw some sort of map!

Your mental map of Vancouver  Discuss your maps at your table

Your mental map of Vancouver  What feature of the city did you draw first?  What features in the centre of the map?  What features most prominently?  Is the map be North oriented?

North arrow, scale bar, legend, standard cartographic symbols, …

Associative perception of position of size

Bostonian’s Image of the USA

New Yorker’s Image of the USA

Result Perceptions of distance and importance

Surveying  Consolidating  Data collection  Sampling  Local guides  Mobile computers

Recording Boundary mapping GPS coordinates Need local knowledge How “participatory”?

Reality vs. perception A1A1 A2A2 B1B1 B2B2

Issues?  How acceptable is sketch mapping?  Is it legitimate?  What are the characteristics of a good and acceptable visualisation?  Discuss these issues for a minute (or two) with your neighbour to your right.

 Compare views with your table  Combine with 2 or 3 tables (one person per table)  Compare left and right wing

Added value of visualization  Courtesy of Giacomo Rambaldi CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands

Added value of visualization Maps and mapmaking Pros and Cons Maps as media Visual language: building blocks and ownership Lessons learned Food for thoughts … Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

Maps and mapmaking Describe discoveries Navigate space Define boundaries Locate resources Register ownership Plan and strategise Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

Maps and mapmaking Educate Inform and misinform Raise awareness Make political propaganda Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

The power of maps “Maps communicate information immediately and convey a sense of authority” (Alcorn, 2000:11) “By ignoring indigenous names, and barely alluding to the presence of local settlements, maps produced by European explorers in effect declared the land to be empty and available” (Poole, 1998). Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

Maps as media Humans communicate via maps For centuries and increasingly with the advent of new Spatial Information Technologies (SIT), graphic representations of Earth in cartographic, electronic, two or three dimensional formats have been playing significant roles as media Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

Towards 2-way communication Spatial data, previously controlled by government institutions increasingly available to and mastered by civil society; SIT integrated into community-centred initiatives through e.g. PGIS, P-GIS, PPGIS, CiGIS, MiGIS, counter mapping, etc. Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

From pebbles to keyboards … Participatory approaches  Solid terrain models (P3DM)  2 D scale maps  Sketch maps  Ephemeral maps Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

P3DM Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

P3DM Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

P3DM Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

From pebbles to keyboards … Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

From pebbles to keyboards … Participatory approaches  P-RS  Orto- photomapping  Tablet computers  GPS Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

What is what? The symbols used to depict real world features reflect through their choice, variation and definition a selected interpretation of reality made by the mapmakers. This combination produces the visual language through which mapmakers communicate. The language has to be a “common property” in order for communication to take place. Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

Visual language symbols (points, lines, polygons and volumes) variables (colour, orientation, shading value, shape, size, and texture) Scales (horizontal and vertical) interpretation keys Building blocks Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

What is what? Choosing symbols and their variables.  Visually linked to real world features  Culturally significant  Culturally acceptable  Consistently applied Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

Questions of ownership … Who decides on what is “important”? Who selects symbol and variable to depict given feature ? If made public, who decides on what to display on the map and its legend ? Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

Hidden layers of information

… ultimately Who owns the pictorial language, its graphic vocabulary and the resulting message? Who owns the Legend? Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

Towards improved practice …  Be aware of diversity  Your logic is not necessarily theirs  Be inclusive  Do not assume: ask or discretely verify  Be open to change  Listen and learn  Do nor preach or teach  Reconcile rather than correct Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

Useful links electronic discussion forum (forthcoming) reference site on P3DM, PGIS, PPGIS, P-GIS, GiGIS and more … Source: G.Rambaldi, 2005

Who thinks P3DM is a useful tool?

Examples of web participation  nuclearwaste/

Exploring environmental decision making using Internet GIS Public participation in locating a nuclear waste disposal site Enter the sitenter the site System designed and developed by: Steve Carver, Andy Evans & Richard Kingston School of Geography University of Leeds School of GeographyUniversity of Leeds Conditions of Use © University of Leeds 2002

West Africa example 

Risk mapping

Risk map (

Transport

Risk map ( Nuclear Accident Zones

Risk map ( Nuclear Accident Zones

Risk map ( Hazard contours

Risk map ( Distance measurement

Risk map ( Flood risk

Crime mapping (

Crime map ( Online crime statistics and location

Crime map ( Online crime statistics and location

Crime map ( Online crime statistics and location

Online maps and imagery  Google Earth  The future for spatial information access / exchange / dissemination?

Google Earth

How to interact with digital maps?  Experiences?  Worldwide applicability of WWW?  How participatory is this?  Does it have added value to the participatory process?  …

Talking over maps  Maptalk  By MapsUp, Alterra, WUR, The Netherlands  Courtesy of Jaap de Kroes

Characteristics of the participative approach  Multi actor en Multi-level problems  Many stakeholders, different visions and different concepts  complex  Unequal en uncertain information  Many alternatives  Conflicting interests  Unstructured problems Source: J.de Kroes, MapsUp, 2006

Chalenge for a participative approach  To come in dialog with the stakeholders before everybody has made up their minds  To make it possible that stakeholders see the dilemmas and problems of others  To create an environment that people want to share their information Source: J.de Kroes, MapsUp, 2006

Digital tools are only tools  Research to application possibilities  Creativity and courage  Evaluating present methods and replacing parts of it Source: J.de Kroes, MapsUp, 2006

Maptalk in the Group Desicion Room Objective of the tool  To get interest of all the stakeholders on the map  inventarisation of conflicts and agreement  starting the dialog Source: J.de Kroes, MapsUp, 2006

Maptalk in the GDR How is this done?  combination of individual work and group work  using a drawing to indicate the location and a label for indicating motivation  zooming in for discussing the details  zooming out for discussing the general problems Source: J.de Kroes, MapsUp, 2006

Maptable Source: J.de Kroes, MapsUp, 2006

The digital designtable  Making together a scenario  working together when the dialog is established  The different interest, dilemmas and problems of stakeholders should be known Source: J.de Kroes, MapsUp, 2006

New tools  Using GIS one can calculate consequences of drawings  3D visualisation  on-line communication with maps  designtools Source: J.de Kroes, MapsUp, 2006

Regrouping of agricultural fields  Every 30 years a reorganization of fields  Always more area than land claims  Area with no claims get a new destination  New recreation, nature and industrial area Source: J.de Kroes, MapsUp, 2006

Using AutoDesk Alias Sketchbook  Interactive sketch mapping can be used in designing and discussion of spatial plans.  Explore multiple stakeholder views on an imaginary urban development plan by drawing alternative scenarios on maps and imagery.

Digital sketch planning New development Protected area / countryside Buffer zone Existing Industry Urban extent of Amsterdam

Digital sketch planning New development Buffer zone Plan for:  Living  Leisure  Labour Trade-off

 Alias Sketchbook

Final questions? All seminar slides (pdf) available from:  ftp://ftp.itc.nl/pub/pgis (available in two weeks)

Thank you for your attention