E-Participation in Urban Planning: Getting and Keeping Citizens Involved

Abstract

This article addresses an often neglected perspective on e-participation in urban planning: the citizens' perspective. Usually, the debate focuses very much on the planners' perspective. In a case study, two issues are analysed: First, what are the motives of participants and non-participants; second, how citizens' perception of influence and equality in the process affect their satisfaction with it. It is concluded that getting more people involved requires addressing three different types of motives, and that e-participation easily scores high on the perception of equality, but that citizens' perception of influence requires particular attention of the planners.

How do shared-street design and traffic restriction improve urban soundscape and human experience? —An online survey with virtual reality

“…Using online survey would allow participants to have their own time controls on experiencing the virtual environment and performing the survey tasks, and help to achieve a larger sample size. In addition, it is also an innovative attempt of soundscape research in response to the emerging e-participation initiatives in urban planning (Donders et al, 2014).…”

A service-oriented architecture to enable participatory planning: an e-planning platform

“…It includes informing citizenry of planning projects using maps, development proposals, and educational material. The basic need for such information in an online form has been expressed repeatedly in the planning literature (see Talen 2000, Drummond and French 2008, Tait 2012, Donders et al 2014. However, Talen (2000), Drummond and French (2008), and Kahane et al (2013), among others, note also that it is beneficial for information to flow 'between' citizenry, stakeholders, and decision-makers -not just from planners to others.…”

“…From a governance perspective, e-participation is able to involve citizens early in the planning process (Donders et al 2014). Expertise can be mobilized easily via the Internet so that knowledge, ideas, and experiences of citizens can be used.…”

Current Research Trends in Games for Public Participation in Planning

“…Today, participatory planning is practiced in many parts of the world with varying success [3]. South American and African countries feature some prominent participatory planning examples [1], [4], [5], while some Western countries, which pioneered and developed participatory ideas, are struggling with the decreasing public interest towards participation [6]- [8]. The latter is, arguably, due to the rigidity and complexity of Western planning systems and the inefficiency of traditional civic engagement methods, such as public display [3], [9]- [11].…”