The Greyfield Challenge to Australian Governments

Between 2000 and 2020, Australia’s population grew almost 24% to 25 million. Most of this growth occurred in Australia’s major cities, acutely exacerbating sprawl, which has been a planning challenge since the mid- to late twentieth century. The urban-policy response has been toward more compact cities via ‘infill’—redevelopment within existing urban boundaries. This chapter distinguishes between former industrial ‘brownfield’ infill and the more challenging ‘greyfield’ infill. Greyfields comprise ageing, under-capitalised, low-density suburbia. Most metropolitan planning strategies enable small-scale, ad hoc greyfield redevelopment that tends to erase suburban qualities while only slightly increasing density. As a result, infill targets are not being met. But there is another way, outlined here as ‘greyfield precinct regeneration’: larger-scale integrated redevelopment facilitated through land assembly and supportive state and municipal planning policy.

Assessment of the Modern Practice of Strategizing Social and Economic Development of Large Cities

The aim of the study is to assess the modern Russian practice of strategizing social and economic development of large cities. Methods used for the research were content analysis of urban strategies developed in accordance with the requirements of Federal Law No. 172-FZ “On Strategic Planning in the Russian Federation”, followed by a logical and comparative analysis of methodological approaches to address key objectives of strategizing tested in practice. These tasks include: assessment of the achieved goals and the social and economic development potential of a large city, identification of its competitive advantages, justification of strategic goals and targets, definition of the appropriate amount of financial resources, selection of the strategy implementation mechanism. Object database of our study includes the cities of Voronezh, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Magnitogorsk, Novosibirsk, Penza, Rostov-on-Don, Tver, Tolyatti and Ulan-Ude. The analysis made it possible to identify several significant weaknesses inherent in the mass practice of strategic municipal planning. The first one is the inadequacy of the used methodological approaches to the complicated character of key tasks of municipal strategy development. The second one concerns the absence of clear, unambiguously interpreted requirements that define the required quality level for the results obtained in the solution of key tasks. The third one is a non-systematic planning process, manifested in weak coordination between the main components of the strategy (mission and strategic goals, strategic goals and objectives, strategic goals and management tools and financial resources that ensure their achievement). The fourth one is the limited number of participants when developing strategies, which significantly reduces the abilities to include the interests of different stakeholder groups. The main reasons for the presence of these weaknesses were determined. In order to improve the quality of strategic municipal planning it is necessary to focus the activities of public authorities on their elimination.

Municipal integrated coastal governance approach: complimentary disciplinary instruments and collaboration pre-conditions

Municipal coastal governance practice also in Latvia has various limitations, and taking into account growing climate change adaptation challenges, new understanding and new approaches are to be studied and tested. Overall study frame is based on research-and-development approach. The aim of the research was to study how municipal coastal governance is functioning in practice, particularly, in the relation to the coastal dune protection zones (150/300 m) and further coastal territory behind that, applying whole list of governance instrument groups – political/legal, planning, and especially institutional instruments, also financial, infrastructure and, last but not least, coastal communication instruments. This was done via research-and-governance frame of the three coastal governance dimensions – governance content, stakeholders (governance segments) and governance instruments, realized in Jurmala municipality as especially nature-culture rich and due to tourist attraction also sensitive coastal pilot territory at the Latvia coast. Case study research methodology applied (document studies, observation and stakeholder’s interviews) were approving pre-study understanding, based on previous coastal governance studies, that also this territory with international coastal resort status and well developed municipal administration capacities have limited success on integrated coastal management (ICM) approach implementation and, subsequently, there are requirements on further development of disciplinary instruments and also collaboration governance as ICM preconditions. An integrated ICM approach was internationally designed and approved also for EU coastal countries, since comprehensive requirement to manage the adequate governance of the coast as complex socio-ecological system, but old shaped long existing traditional disciplinary/branch approaches of former and formal municipal planning and management does not really permit necessary innovations with cross-sectorial and cross-level integration perspectives. However, also orientation towards re-use and/or re-development of disciplinary ICM instruments, especially, to be designed and realized as complementary as possible and collaboration governance developments shall be seen as necessary pre-conditions for ICM adequate development.

A prototype of web-based PPGIS for municipal planning using open source software

Web-based Public Participation Geographic Information System (WebPPGIS) is inherently about empowering GIS and Web technology and enabling the public users to use the technology to capture their local knowledge and immerse them into the spatial decision making process. However, there have [sic] some common barriers to WebPPGIS implementation such as lack of communication mechanism for the public; lack of friendly use interface for the non-expert public users; and the cost of the GIS software packages etc. This thesis presents the results of a research project, aiming at overcoming the above barriers and implementing a practical WebPPGIS. General requirements of WebPPGIS are summarized based on the analysis of current researches and a prototype is implemented to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach. Also this thesis illustrates that Open Source Software (OSS) is a competetive solution for developing cost-effective WebPPGIS. Further, the evaluation of the prototype has been performed against the requirements

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.

Development of a web-based collaborative PPGIS to support municipal planning

The use of computing technologies to support workflows related to the planning and development of a municipality dates back to the late 1950s. The main boosts of computing technologies and applications, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Geographic Information Technology (GIT), in relation to a planning and decision-making context, became evident when the use of Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) started in the 1980s. Collaboration is an important part of many tasks involving people from different organizations, in which maps often play a central role in informing and improving debates and facilitating the decision-making process. It allows diverse stakeholders to share and view maps or spatial images interactively over the Web in real-time, among other platforms. The geospatial collaboration technology not only provides an effective solution to decision makers, but also facilitates scientific and public debates with real-time geospatial information. More recently, some efforts have been made using open map services to develop simple map-sharing applications. However, little has been done on designing and developing such online open source tools in the context of municipal planning and management. Further, a literature review indicates the lack of scientific publications on empirical studies of their practical applications. Web-based PPGIS applications, among others, have now been widely recognized as an efficient and integral part of sound planning and development processes to support public participation. However, GIS alone cannot make the planning process more participative. Demands for Web-based PPGIS tools, integrated with other information and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) tools, have rapidly become increasingly important for supporting collaborative participation during a decision-making process. Therefore, the establishment of public participation in GIS-based applications is an optimistic step taken by the researchers that are progressively working on municipal planning projects that incorporate public participation. The main aim of this research is to provide a Collaborative PPGIS (Co-PPGIS) to enhance public participation in municipal planning related workflows. A research prototype has been developed and its usability is evaluated by adopting the evaluation criteria for the research prototype, as only proper testing will demonstrate whether the prototype is usable or the Co-PPGIS design framework is successful in meeting end-users’ requirements.

A prototype of web-based PPGIS for municipal planning using open source software

Web-based Public Participation Geographic Information System (WebPPGIS) is inherently about empowering GIS and Web technology and enabling the public users to use the technology to capture their local knowledge and immerse them into the spatial decision making process. However, there have [sic] some common barriers to WebPPGIS implementation such as lack of communication mechanism for the public; lack of friendly use interface for the non-expert public users; and the cost of the GIS software packages etc. This thesis presents the results of a research project, aiming at overcoming the above barriers and implementing a practical WebPPGIS. General requirements of WebPPGIS are summarized based on the analysis of current researches and a prototype is implemented to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach. Also this thesis illustrates that Open Source Software (OSS) is a competetive solution for developing cost-effective WebPPGIS. Further, the evaluation of the prototype has been performed against the requirements

Analysis and design of a GIS-enabled virtual public meeting space using UML for participatory municipal planning

The main aim of this research is to develop and test Web-based Public Participation Geographical Information Systems (WebPPGIS) to enable public involvement and participation in municipal planning and decision making. This objective is based on the belief that by providing citizens with access to information and data in the form of maps and visualisations they can make better informed decisions and it can immerse them into the spatial decision making process. This thesis presents a prototype implementation serving for spatially related discussions which is based on the GeoVPMS (GIS-based Virtual Public Meeting Space) model introduced by (Li et al., 2007). Moreover, a prototype has been analysed, designed and implemented using UML (Unified Model Language) approach to demonstrate a Web GIS-based architecture with utilization of various open source GIS and other OSS (Open Source Software) tools. In addition, it depicts a cost effective model of n-tier (multi-tier) Web integrated application prototype that can facilitate online public participation in municipal planning and development processes. Its components include online GIS-based participation forum as well as notification system enhance communication during spatially-related discussions in municipal planning and manage all kinds of notice among members as well as general public participants. Furthermore, the spatial data handling components used in this prototype is designed to help the public to explore the spatial contexts related to the issues under planning with and without addressing the form, whereas this contribution makes the protytope more effective and successful. In addition, the prototype is demonstrated with a scenario of public participation in spatial planning using Region of Peel's data.

Development of a web-based collaborative PPGIS to support municipal planning.

The use of computing technologies to support workflows related to the planning and development of a municipality dates back to the late 1950s. The main boosts of computing technologies and applications, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Geographic Information Technology (GIT), in relation to a planning and decision-making context, became evident when the use of Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) started in the 1980s. Collaboration is an important part of many tasks involving people from different organizations, in which maps often play a central role in informing and improving debates and facilitating the decision-making process. It allows diverse stakeholders to share and view maps or spatial images interactively over the Web in real-time, among other platforms. The geospatial collaboration technology not only provides an effective solution to decision makers, but also facilitates scientific and public debates with real-time geospatial information. More recently, some efforts have been made using open map services to develop simple map-sharing applications. However, little has been done on designing and developing such online open source tools in the context of municipal planning and management. Further, a literature review indicates the lack of scientific publications on empirical studies of their practical applications. Web-based PPGIS applications, among others, have now been widely recognized as an efficient and integral part of sound planning and development processes to support public participation. However, GIS alone cannot make the planning process more participative. Demands for Web-based PPGIS tools, integrated with other information and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) tools, have rapidly become increasingly important for supporting collaborative participation during a decision-making process. Therefore, the establishment of public participation in GIS-based applications is an optimistic step taken by the researchers that are progressively working on municipal planning projects that incorporate public participation. The main aim of this research is to provide a Collaborative PPGIS (Co-PPGIS) to enhance public participation in municipal planning related workflows. A research prototype has been developed and its usability is evaluated by adopting the evaluation criteria for the research prototype, as only proper testing will demonstrate whether the prototype is usable or the Co-PPGIS design framework is successful in meeting end-users’ requirements.