Games in urban planning – a comparative study

The purpose of this paper is to show and discuss the results of a comparative study of games for urban planning. We provide an overview of the selected games available on the market. Because of the variety of offered games, we decided to group them in categories distinguishing among non-digital/traditional, digital and pervasive. The group of non-digital/traditional games includes some well-known, but also some recently developed games: Broken Cities, CLUG, Ginkgopolis, Masterplan, Neue Heimat, Pop-up Pest, Stadtspieler and The Harbour Game. In the category of digital games we considered: Anno, City One, Civilisation, Community PlanIt, Green Sight City, Minecraft/Block by block, Plasticity, Securing Sydney´s Urban Planning, SimCity and Surfing Global Change. The category of pervasive games included: Mogi, PacManhattan and REXplorer. We compared them according to the predefined criteria including participation, interaction, realistic visualization, learning effect and knowledge transfer. One of the positive aspects comprehended that there are some games used for integrating people in urban planning processes. The critical aspects included that there are many games focusing on urban planning issues, but only little were used for integrating people in active urban planning processes. We conclude our paper with a critical discussion of the results of our study and a reflection about further research on games for urban planning

Methodology for Measuring the Demand Geoinformation Transaction Costs: Based on Experiments in Berlin, Vienna and Zurich

Searching for geoinformation and inquiring about the conditions of exchange involves transaction costs. Neoclassical economy neglects the existence of these costs and therefore lacks economic models which could be applied to geoinformation. We are interested in establishing theoretical foundations of transaction costs related to geoinformation and in methods which could help to quantify these costs. The importance of this article is that this is to date the first attempt to measure the transaction cost of geoinformation and at the same time it presents the first quantitative results. The research is novel and therefore in development. The presented methodology reflects our first experiences gained in the selected cities of Berlin, Vienna and Zurich. We conclude the article with open questions and further research directions

Engaging Youth Through Spatial Socio-Technical Storytelling, Participatory GIS, Agent-Based Modeling, Online Geogames and Action Projects.

The main goal of this paper is to present the conceptual framework for engaging youth in urban planning activities that simultaneously create locally meaningful positive change. The framework for engaging youth interlinks the use of IT tools such as geographic information systems (GIS), agent-based modelling (ABM), online serious games, and mobile participatory geographic information systems with map-based storytelling and action projects. We summarize the elements of our framework and the first results gained in the program Community Growers established in a neighbourhood community of Des Moines, the capital of Iowa, USA. We conclude the paper with a discussion and future research directions

Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the idea of urban design as a virtual space evolves as a reflexive instance between pixels and ideas that help to develop a new perception of space and social life. It explores inter alia, routines and perceptions where we often do not even recognize that the virtual has entangled with reality. The book describes a cognitive design computing system for urban planners. It focuses on understanding the relationship between an emergent structure and processes. The book discusses four game concepts ranging from very serious games to more playful virtual game-based environments. All created games may be used to facilitate participatory processes in urban planning. The book demonstrates how Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and virtual platforms can be implemented for a mobile device and offers ten key questions that need to be asked in the process of creating a facilitated-VGI

Geodesign Education: Case Studies from the US, Brazil and Italy

This paper focuses on the adoption of the geodesign approach, in-cluding methods and tools, in spatial planning and design courses in higher edu-cation with an international comparative perspective. The comparative review is based on four case studies developed implemented in the US, Brazil and Italy. They were developed by the authors of this article in order to showcase the dif-ferences in the implementation and use of geodesign framework, scenario plan-ning and newly developed web-based tools. The comparison and discussion of case studies demonstrates the possibility and potential of applying geodesign methods at different a variety of scales, with different approaches and with dif-ferent participants. The paper concludes with reflections of the taken approaches and a discussion