A methodological framework for analysis of participatory mapping data in research, planning, and management

Today, various methods are applied to analyze the data collected through participatory mapping, including public participation GIS (PPGIS), participatory GIS (PGIS), and collecting volunteered geographic information (VGI). However, these methods lack an organized framework to describe and guide their systematic applications. Majority of the published articles on participatory mapping apply a specific subset of analyses that fails to situate the methods within a broader, more holistic context of research and practice. Based on the expert workshops and a literature review, we synthesized the existing analysis methods applied to the data collected through participatory mapping approaches. In this article, we present a framework of methods categorized into three phases: Explore, Explain, and Predict/Model. Identified analysis methods have been highlighted with empirical examples. The article particularly focuses on the increasing applications of online PPGIS and web-based mapping surveys for data collection. We aim to guide both novice and experienced practitioners in the field of participatory mapping. In addition to providing a holistic framework for understanding data analysis possibilities, we also discuss potential directions for future developments in analysis of participatory mapping data.Peer reviewe

Honouring the participatory mapping contributions and enduring legacy of Professor Gregory G. Brown

This commentary honours the seminal and foundational contributions of Professor Gregory G. (Greg) Brown to the fields of public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS), natural resource management and spatial planning. We synthesise his work into four theses that underpinned his three decades of research: 1) The mapping of place values provides place-specific information about sense of place which can aid in the assessment of the risks associated with landscape modification; 2) PPGIS analysis techniques can support socially acceptable and scientifically defensible land-use decisions in multiple planning contexts; 3) Issues of representation and data quality can be systematically investigated and managed; and 4) While PPGIS is increasingly being applied by cities and other organisations globally, there remains multiple challenges regarding the use of PPGIS findings in land-use decision making. We then briefly summarise his future visions for PPGIS research into: improving participation, and identifying and controlling threats to spatial data quality; turning PPGIS from a participation tool to a political force that can engage with the politics of place and, related to the previous vision; building capacity and champions for those who see the value in participatory mapping methods and are willing to articulate publicly how participatory contributions will be used. The co-authors and all signatories to this commentary are deeply grateful for the many ways that Greg has touched our lives over the years. He will be sadly missed.Peer reviewe

Identifying ‘public values’ for marine and coastal planning: Are residents and non-residents really so different?

Planning and management for marine and coastal areas is often contentious, with competing interests claiming their preferences are in the ‘public interest’. Defining the public interest for marine and coastal areas remains a wicked problem, however, resistant to resolution. A focus on more tangible ‘public values’ offers an alternative for policy and planning in specific contexts. However, ambiguity surrounds who or what constitutes the ‘public’, with stakeholder engagement often used as a proxy in marine and coastal research. In this study, the outcomes of participatory processes involving the public from diverse backgrounds and geographical locales were explored. A public participation GIS (PPGIS) survey was undertaken in the remote Kimberley region of Australia to identify the spatial values and management preferences for marine and coastal areas. Similarities and differences between the volunteer public (n = 372) and online panel respondents (n = 206); and for the volunteer public only, differences between residents (n = 118) and non-residents (n = 254) were assessed. Online panelists evidenced lesser quality mapping data and did not provide a reliable means of accessing ‘public’ values. Residents were more likely to map general recreational and recreational fishing values while non-locals were more likely to map biological/conservation and wilderness values. Overall, residents and non-residents were more alike than dissimilar in their mapping of values and management preferences, suggesting that the need to preference local views may be overstated, although there may be differences in policy priorities. Future research should focus on the breadth and representativeness of stakeholder interests to access the views of wider society and hence public values, rather than current approaches where local interests are often the primary focus of participatory stakeholder engagement

A methodological framework for analysis of participatory mapping data in research, planning, and management

Today, various methods are applied to analyze the data collected through participatory mapping, including public participation GIS (PPGIS), participatory GIS (PGIS), and collecting volunteered geographic information (VGI). However, these methods lack an organized framework to describe and guide their systematic applications. Majority of the published articles on participatory mapping apply a specific subset of analyses that fails to situate the methods within a broader, more holistic context of research and practice. Based on the expert workshops and a literature review, we synthesized the existing analysis methods applied to the data collected through participatory mapping approaches. In this article, we present a framework of methods categorized into three phases: Explore, Explain, and Predict/Model. Identified analysis methods have been highlighted with empirical examples. The article particularly focuses on the increasing applications of online PPGIS and web-based mapping surveys for data collection. We aim to guide both novice and experienced practitioners in the field of participatory mapping. In addition to providing a holistic framework for understanding data analysis possibilities, we also discuss potential directions for future developments in analysis of participatory mapping data

Assessing the positional accuracy of perceptual landscape data: A study from Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy

Online GIS-based applications that combine mapping and public participation to collect citizens' voices on their surrounding environment are a way to collect original spatial data that do not already figure in authoritative data sets. However, these applications, relying on non-expert users, might produce spatial data of insufficient quality for the purpose for which they are collected. This article presents an approach for assessing the positional accuracy of vague landscape features, using the results from a map-based survey completed by a group of volunteers in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of Italy. The spatial section of the survey, gathering both georeferenced data and textual information on the mapping activity, allows the assessment of whether there is a correspondence between the mapped features and the intended map locations. The findings reveal a greater accuracy among participants in completing the mapping activity relating to degraded sites than to those of beauty

Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) for regional and environmental planning: reflections on a decade of empirical research

The term public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) was conceived to describe how GIS technology could support public participation with the goal of including local or marginalized populations in planning and decision processes. Based on experience with more than 15 PPGIS studies, the central thesis of this paper is that PPGIS has not substantively increased the level of public impact in decision making because of multiple social and institutional constraints. Following a review of a decade of empirical PPGIS research, this paper explores why government and nongovernment organization (NGO) adoption of PPGIS for environmental planning decision support has lagged. Despite methodological advances in PPGIS, agency barriers to effective public participation have not been fundamentally altered by PPGIS. For PPGIS to have a sustained impact on regional and environmental planning, agencies must meaningfully encourage and involve the public in planning processes irrespective of the GIS component

Volunteered Geographic Information: a 10-year bibliometric investigation

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has become more evident at the same time as open-source platforms become worldwide popular, both resulting from people easily accessing geographic information on their smartphones. Aiming to investigate the main aspects of this research field, a bibliometric investigation was developed focusing on 10-year period (2011-2020). The analyses were performed based on Scopus database, VOS Viewer and Bibliometrix softwares, approaching: publications over years, document types, subject areas, core sources, main papers, countries, authors and most recurrent keywords. The initial results indicated that: publications have increased at an annual rate of 21.69%, the most published document type was article and only 16 journals were responsible for 33.33% of those 1200 articles published. USA, Germany and UK are major countries researching VGI and the last two are also host countries of the main authors. Although the term VGI has been defined among Citizen Science, the network of keywords occurrence showed that GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is an outstanding study field. However, the network visualization based on average publication per year revealed Citizen Science as a research field still moving forward. Keywords such as OpenStreetMap, data quality, accuracy assessment, social media and crowdsourcing showed to be more widespread among the field, the opposite occurs with applications in urban areas, land use and ecosystem services. Overall, the bibliometric indicators have revealed to be effective in order to access VGI as a research topic and indicated a promising trend in themes involving social media, remote sensing, urban area, crowdsourcing and PPGIS.A Informação Geográfica Voluntária (VGI) tornou-se mais evidente ao mesmo tempo em que as plataformas de código aberto se tornaram populares em todo o mundo, ambas resultantes do fácil acesso das pessoas às informações geográficas em seus smartphones. Com o objetivo de investigar os principais aspectos deste campo de pesquisa, foi desenvolvida uma investigação bibliométrica com foco num período de 10 anos (2011-2020).  A análise foi realizada com base no banco de dados Scopus e nos softwares VOS Viewer e Bibliometrix, abordando: publicações ao longo dos anos, tipos de documentos, campos de estudo, principais periódicos, principais artigos, países, autores e palavras-chave mais recorrentes. Os resultados iniciais indicaram que: as publicações aumentaram a uma taxa anual de 21.69%, o tipo de documento mais publicado foi artigo e apenas 16 periódicos foram responsáveis por 33.33% dos 1200 artigos publicados. EUA, Alemanha e Reino Unido são os principais países que pesquisam VGI e os dois últimos também são países-sede dos principais autores. Apesar do termo VGI ter sido definido em meio a Ciência Cidadã, a rede de ocorrência de palavras-chave mostrou que SIG (Sistema de Informação Geográfica) é um campo de estudo de destaque. Contudo, a rede de visualização com base em média de publicações por ano revelou a Ciência Cidadã como um campo de pesquisa ainda em avanço. Palavras-chave como OpenStreetMap, qualidade dos dados, avaliação da precisão, mídias sociais e coletividade mostraram-se mais difundidas no campo, o oposto ocorre com aplicações em áreas urbanas, uso do solo e serviços ecossistêmicos. No geral, os indicadores bibliométricos revelaram-se eficazes para acessar a VGI como tópico de pesquisa e indicaram uma tendência promissora em temas envolvendo redes sociais, sensoriamento remoto, área urbana, colaboração coletiva e PPGIS

Toward Cyborg PPGIS: exploring socio-technical requirements for the use of web-based PPGIS in two municipal planning cases, Stockholm region, Sweden

Web-based Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) are increasingly used for surveying place values and informing municipal planning in contexts of urban densification. However, research is lagging behind the rapid deployment of PPGIS applications. Some of the main opportunities and challenges for the uptake and implementation of web-based PPGIS are derived from a literature review and two case studies dealing with municipal planning for urban densification in the Stockholm region, Sweden. A simple clustering analysis identified three interconnected themes that together determine the performance of PPGIS: (i) tool design and affordances; (ii) organisational capacity; and (iii) governance. The results of the case studies augment existing literature regarding the connections between the different socio-technical dimensions for the design, implementation and evaluation of PPGIS applications in municipal planning. A cyborg approach to PPGIS is then proposed to improve the theoretical basis for addressing these dimensions together

Enhancing Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) Visualization with Open Source Web-Based Software

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

Public participation GIS can help assess multiple dimensions of environmental justice in urban green and blue space planning

In the last two decades, there has been an exponential increase in application of public participation GIS (PPGIS) methods to urban green and blue space (UGBS) planning. However, integrating different elements of environ-mental justice in PPGIS research is still in its infancy, especially in regards to the deep and less visible issues related to recognition and participation of different groups in local green space planning and management. Here we present a new method for assessing perceived recognition and procedural justice with respect to UGBS in the Amager island of Copenhagen, Denmark. We collected survey data together with 2187 place-based values and preferences from 298 local residents. Using Exploratory Factor Analysis, we classified respondents in four clusters representing low to high perceived recognition and procedural justice. We then examined how these clusters relate to socio-demographics and the spatial distribution of mapped values and preferences. Results indicated no significant differences in terms of income and age between clusters. However, there was clear variation in the spatial distribution and type of values and preferences respondents from different clusters assigned, particularly for those who feel unrecognized and do not participate in local environmental decision -making compared to all other groups. In addition, gender had a significant effect on the perceptions of recog-nition and procedure. Female respondents scored lower on procedural justice than male and mapped landscape values and preferences closer to home than males, thus suggesting that gender inequalities can be deeply embedded in everyday public spaces and practices. Planning inclusive and environmentally just UGBS requires not only incorporating such gender perspectives, but a more flexible, intersectional and relational understanding of space that reflects the everyday needs of different and marginalized groups.Peer reviewe