Remote stakeholder collaboration in urban planning
Might include work in the ITC Group Decision Room
Urban planning issues and processes prescribe a collaboration of various stakeholders, which is nowadays often supported by planning support tools. Due to the restrictions related to the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic various means and tools of remote collaboration between stakeholders, such as web-based mapping platforms and digital communication channels, have become popular. Examples are the ArcGIS online based PSS Geoplanner (https://doc.arcgis.com/de/geoplanner/) or the online collaboration platform Miro (https://miro.com/). Unclear is how well such platforms support a smooth collaboration and enable all stakeholders to actively engage in the planning process and to share their views. Such questions are the core of this research topic. Focus can be either on the developing and testing of a new platform or the assessment of the usability and usefulness of an existing tool. A suitable urban planning issues as well as a case study will be discussed and decided during the proposal writing.
Goal of the research is to explore means of remote stakeholder collaboration in urban planning and to assess its effectiveness in a case study. Potential urban planning topics are bikeability in urban areas, urban energy transition, and environmental planning issues in urban areas, among others. Depending on the chosen focus of the research the methodology might include the development and/or setup of a suitable remote collaboration tool and process, the implementation of remote stakeholder workshops, and the analysis of workshops process and outcomes.
Maceachren, A. M., & Brewer, I. (2004). Developing a conceptual framework for visually-enabled geocollaboration. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 18(1), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/13658810310001596094