Smart Governance, Collaborative Planning and Planning Support Systems: A Fruitful Triangle?

Abstract

The scientific literature on smart cities has focused on innovative developments in information and communication technology (ICT) and on its consequences for urban life and policy making. In line with these, Batty et al. (Eur Phys J Spec Top 214:481-518, 2012) state that new technological developments are providing for new types of analysis, public participation and multi-actor collaboration, blurring the boundaries between smart cities and urban planning. We take this statement as a starting point for our discussion and put attention on the interplay between new ICT, smart cities and spatial planning. We focus in particular on the triangular relationship between smart governance as one of the areas of smart cities (Giffinger et al. in Ranking of European medium-sized cities, 2007), collaborative planning as a present form of spatial planning, and planning support systems (PSS) as a specific form of ICT dedicated to planning tasks. Collaborative planning is characterized by consensus building among distinctive stakeholders in participatory processes. Smart governance adds ICT-related components (e.g. efficient communication; data exchange) to the concept of collaborative planning. Finally, PSS involves the creation and use of tools to support professional planners' tasks, including introducing relevant geoinformation and facilitating participation. To illustrate this triangular relationship, we examine some practical case studies from China, Finland, and the USA that suggest how web-based and model-based PSS can fulfil a supportive role, to realize smart governance in spatial planning by promoting effective communication and collaboration between various actors, and by strengthening the transparency of the decision-making process. We conclude that collaborative planning can become a form of smart governance under two basic conditions, namely of recent developments in the applicable ICT and an appropriate institutional design.

Demonstration of public participation and communication through social media in the network society within Shanghai

“…Public participation in the network society will thus become increasingly important, and the government should support various forms of participation and promote transparent governance. Different types of participation tools and platforms—such as web-based planning support systems (Lin and Geertman, 2015) and crowdsourcing participation platforms—can be developed to support citizen participation and the cooperation of various actors in the planning process. New types of GIS (geographic information system), Web 2.0, and mobile phone apps, as well as their precursors, rely on user-generated content, are community-based, and are designed to harness and communicate a collective wisdom (Epp, 2012).…”

“…Although there is a growing body of literature on the application of the Internet and visualization tools in urban planning (e.g., Lieske et al., 2009; Lin and Geertman, 2015; Rotondo and Selicato, 2010; Tobias et al., 2016), little research has examined the complexity of participation and communication in the planning process against the background of the network society. The wide-scale promotion of public participation in China is also relatively recent: It started only in 2008 with the introduction of the Urban–Rural Planning Law.…”

Towards Supporting Collaborative Spatial Planning: Conceptualization of a Maptable Tool through User Stories

“…Geographic information (GI) based planning support tools which offer interactive map visualization and analytical capabilities have the potential to mediate collaborative spatial planning processes. The shift from rational planning to communicative planning has promoted the utilization of such (digital) geo-tools as mediators for social interaction in addressing spatial planning problems [1][2][3][4]. However, planning practitioners have not fully incorporated Planning Support Systems (PSS) in their practice despite the variety of such tools developed to aid spatial planning tasks [5,6].…”

Co-designing planning support tools for stakeholder engagement in collaborative spatial planning processes

“…However, reaching a shared understanding is challenging as decisions are usually contentious, and interaction between stakeholders varies from agreement and contestation (Maceachren & Brewer, 2004;Pfeffer et al, 2013). Moreover, collaborative planning is seen as good governance practice that supports participation, accountability and promotes transparency while improving acceptance and commitment to implement the decision (Lin & Geertman, 2015;McCall & Dunn, 2012;Slager et al, 2007).…”

“…Geographic information (GI) based planning support tools which offer interactive map visualization and analytical capabilities have the potential to mediate collaborative spatial planning processes. The shift from rational planning to communicative planning has promoted the utilization of such (digital) geo-tools as mediators for social interaction in addressing spatial planning problems (Foth, Bajracharya, Brown, & Hearn, 2009;Lin & Geertman, 2015;Pelzer et al, 2014;te Brömmelstroet & Schrijnen, 2010). However, planning practitioners have not fully incorporated Planning Support Systems (PSS) in their practice despite the variety of such tools developed to aid spatial planning tasks (Falco & Kleinhans, 2018;Geertman, 2017).…”