Participatory Mapping, E-Participation, and E-Governance

This chapter focuses on participatory mapping as an e-governance tool to facilitate public participation. Public participation is a key component of democratic governance, and there is a growing reliance on digital government tools such as the internet and social networking sites and geographic information systems (GIS). This chapter focuses on public engagement using information and communication technology, namely participatory mapping, known by a variety of terms such as participatory GIS (PGIS), public participation GIS (PPGIS), and voluntary GIS. While the analysis involves use of participatory mapping related to environmental issues, the chapter brings together seminal work from various fields of citizen engagement and participatory mapping. The idea is to create one common narrative for scholars and practitioners, bringing together various terminologies, practices, and studies in participatory mapping in the environmental arena that offers a beginner's frame of reference.

Participatory GIS-Based Approach for the Demarcation of Village Boundaries and Their Utility: A Case Study of the Eastern Boundary of Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka

This study examines spatial knowledge of the local community and the participatory resource mapping (PRM) approach to demarcate land boundaries in the eastern boundary of Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has four types of major administrative boundaries, namely, provinces, districts, divisional secretariat divisions (DSD), and Grama Niladari (GN) divisions. The smallest community segments are clustered inside each GN division. The lack of proper demarcation of these smallest community segments, called ‘villages’, has been identified as a significant issue when implementing community development plans and applications in government and non-government projects. Thus, the deliverables of community-based projects become less effective. The objective of this study was to explore means of demarcating land boundaries, to separately identify small community segments using participatory GIS (PGIS) techniques. The study was conducted covering 12 GN divisions adjoining the eastern border of Wilpattu National Park (WNP). The methods used included PGIS interviews and group discussions with PRM steps. Overall, around 100 selected community members, spread across 12 GN divisions, were chosen to participate in the study. Community society meetings were conducted in each village, and essential topographic information in the area was collected with the knowledge of local society members and GIS tools. Later, this was digitized and verified to improve the presentation and accuracy of the results. As a result, the study could identify villages in each GN division, while generating more precise digital maps. Through this study, it can be confirmed that PGIS has remarkable potential in land use planning applications. The study further shows the potential of the application of PGIS in community-based projects and their deliverables to the community, and in enhancing community education on spatial thinking and planning, while facilitating community empowerment and innovation.

Motivation, Empowerment, and Cognitive Style in a Community of Practice

<p>Social work and Participatory GIS researchers have focused on the social empowerment of disadvantaged groups while neglecting psychological aspects of empowerment. Social empowerment generally refers to an increase in political or economic power for the disadvantaged. Psychological empowerment generally refers to internal , motivational processes. Community development projects must often balance the two, and the diverse needs, interests, and ideologies of practitioners and participants. It is proposed that two psychological theories can explain how psychological empowerment occurs and varies. These theories are the Empathiser-Sytemiser theory of cognitive style (Baron-Cohen et al., 2005), and Self-Determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 2000). The links between these theories and the implications for empowerment are explored through a case study of a community gardening group and community mapping in Wellington, New Zealand. The thesis argues that empowerment-oriented efforts are especially valuable during economic decline and transition.</p>

Motivation, Empowerment, and Cognitive Style in a Community of Practice

<p>Social work and Participatory GIS researchers have focused on the social empowerment of disadvantaged groups while neglecting psychological aspects of empowerment. Social empowerment generally refers to an increase in political or economic power for the disadvantaged. Psychological empowerment generally refers to internal , motivational processes. Community development projects must often balance the two, and the diverse needs, interests, and ideologies of practitioners and participants. It is proposed that two psychological theories can explain how psychological empowerment occurs and varies. These theories are the Empathiser-Sytemiser theory of cognitive style (Baron-Cohen et al., 2005), and Self-Determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 2000). The links between these theories and the implications for empowerment are explored through a case study of a community gardening group and community mapping in Wellington, New Zealand. The thesis argues that empowerment-oriented efforts are especially valuable during economic decline and transition.</p>

A Combined Approach of Remote Sensing, GIS, and Social Media to Create and Disseminate Bushfire Warning Contents to Rural Australia

Bushfires are an integral part of the forest regeneration cycle in Australia. However, from the perspective of a natural disaster, the impact of bushfires on human settlements and the environment is massive. In Australia, bushfires are the most disastrous natural hazards. According to the records of the Parliament of Australia, the recent catastrophic bushfires in NSW and Victoria burnt out over 10 million hectares of land, a figure more significant than any previous bushfire damage on record. After the deadly 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, which killed 173 people in Victoria, public attention to bushfires reached a new peak. Due to the disastrous consequences of bushfires, scientists have explored various methods to mitigate or even avoid bushfire damage, including the use of bushfire alerts. The present study adds satellite imagery and GIS-based semi-real-time bushfire contents to various bushfire warnings issued by government authorities. The new product will disseminate graphical bushfire contents to rural Australians through social media, using Google Maps. This low-cost Media GIS content can be delivered through highly popular smartphone networks in Australia through social media (Facebook and Twitter). We expect its success to encourage people to participate in disaster mitigation efforts as contributors in a participatory GIS network. This paper presents a case study to demonstrate the production process and the quality of media GIS content and further discusses the potential of using social media through the mobile network of Australia while paying attention to mobile blackspots. Media GIS content has the potential to link with the public information systems of local fire management services, disseminate contents through a mobile app, and develop into a fully automated media GIS content system to expand the service beyond bushfires.

Spatial Interaction between Lifestyles and Tuberculosis: An Expert and Public Participatory GIS in Malaysia

Human lifestyle factors are potential contributing factors to tuberculosis (TB) transmission in Malaysia, but the previous studies have not comprehensively explored these factors by using geospatial and public perspectives. The aim of the study was to examine the impacts of lifestyle risk factors on TB cases in Shah Alam using an expert and public participatory GIS (PPGIS) approach with the 5-risk scale from 1 to 5. Local health experts have suggested that the overall risk scale of TB-lifestyle factors are 2.33 (medium risk) as revealed in the public perception and GIS map (2.08). Key findings have shown that the factors of obesity/weights, diet routine, living conditions, physical exercise and socioeconomic status become a potential threat to the local community to get TB infection, especially if all these factors combine together.

Data integration and participatory process in developing integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) in the northern Baltic Sea

The Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive was ratified (2014/89/EU) along the Strategy of the European Union (EU) on the Blue Economy to contribute to the effective management of maritime activities and resources and incorporate the principal elements of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) (2002/413/EC) into planning at the land-sea interface. There is a need to develop the ICZM approach throughout Europe to realise the potential for both socio-economic and environmental targets set by the EU and national legislations. In this study, we co-developed different approaches for land-sea interactions in four case areas in Estonia and Finland based on the defined characteristics and key interests derived from local or regional challenges by integrating spatial data on human activities and ecology. Furthermore, four ICZM drafts were co-evaluated by stakeholders and the public using online map-based assessment tools (public participatory GIS). The ICZM approaches of the Estonian cases ranged from the diversification of land use to the enhancement of community-based entrepreneurship. The Finnish cases aimed to define the trends for sustainable marine and coastal tourism and introduce the ecosystem service concept in land use planning. During the project activities, we found that increased communication and exchange of local and regional views and values on the prevailing land-sea interactions were important for the entire process. Thereafter, the ICZM plans were applied to the MSP processes nationally, and they support the sustainable development of coastal areas in Estonia and Finland.

Mashing up web-based participatory GIS : potential for future e-government services

Recent developments of Google Map, Yahoo! Map and MapQuest APIs have pushed map mashups almost to the top among other types of mashups such as news mashpups, search and shopping mashups, and video and photo mashups. However, map.mashups should not reply on these open data sources and services only. Developing a mashup in general, implies a number of challenges. This thesis first evaluates existing mashup technologies, such as Google Map, Yahoo! Map, and AOL (MapQuest) in the context of map mashups. The results are then used in creating two map mashups for the two selected case studies related to participatory GIS for e-government services. Several commonly used APIs have been selected and integrated into the prototype mashups to support municipal planning and West Nile reporting services, to assess the potential issues concerning data and technology integration for online participatory GIS. The results demonstrate that map mashup has great potential to improve and facilitate the rapid development of the future participatory GIS and e-government services. However the existing mashup technologies may not provide techniques or designs satisfying some special e-government requirements.