PPGIS

This paper aims to explain the creation of the Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of Kainua,
an Etruscan city founded, following a rigorous urban plan, at the beginning of the 5th century
BCE. This DTM was used as the basis for the virtual reconstruction of Kainua landscape
from an urban to an architectural scale in a three-dimensional digital model, visualized in
an interactive and immersive approach. The DTM was developed using different sources of
elevation data, in order to take into account the geo-morphological transformations occurred
in that area from the Etruscan period to the present day. The causes of these changes were
natural (due to erosion phenomena) and anthropic (due to excavations for construction of
transport infrastructure as well as those which occurred partly due to improvements made by
landowners and partly to archaeologists who first began a systematic campaign of site studies).
On positioning on the DTM, an analysis of the metrology and of the infrastructure of the
ancient city (streets and sewers) made it possible to create a renewed vision and to propose a
hypothesis for reconstructing the incomplete, or as yet unstudied, parts of the city, which only
further excavations will confirm.

Common people have proven that high-tech ICT tools can be used for their common social and political benefit. From Tunisia to Wall-Street, social communication networks have played a decisive role in the creation, mobilization, and organization of public protest. But have they helped public reform? Web 2.0 PGIS tools are now one frontier away from becoming a societal tool in building a modern grass-root effective monitoring role. This paper is about how the new emerging concepts for people Web-based monitoring and its georeferenced attributes and analyses can help societies in transition achieve genuine change and reform. These tools can monitor government actions, but can they also track and assist communities combat their internal ills and own violations? It’s the story of an emerging world in which everyone is a partner in societal reform. A world in which young, creative and resourceful youth are leading the way in building a new society that is no-longer bipolar (govern vs governed). The paper shows how a web2.0 geo-application is developed and used to inform and monitor agricultural land building violations in Egypt and in which the local authorities are helped by live citizen reporting, analysis and prediction using crowdmapping.

The concept of residential housing preferences has been studied across multiple disciplines, with extensive literature supporting both stated and revealed preference methods. This study argues that both preference types, stated and revealed, should be assessed concurrently to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of residential housing choices. To provide evidence, this research used findings from a public participation GIS survey that identified the stated housing preferences associated with three categories of urban residents, which were called urban “tribes”. We implemented an analytical framework using fuzzy modelling to relate stated preferences with revealed preferences for the same individuals using empirical data describing the urban structure in Tampere, Finland. Following an analysis of the relationships between residents’ revealed preferences and urban structural variables, we examined the consistency of stated housing preferences with revealed preferences. The resul...

The concept of residential housing preferences has been studied across multiple disciplines, with extensive literature supporting both stated and revealed preference methods. This study argues that both preference types, stated and revealed, should be assessed concurrently to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of residential housing choices. To provide evidence, this research used findings from a public participation GIS survey that identified the stated housing preferences associated with three categories of urban residents, which were called urban “tribes”. We implemented an analytical framework using fuzzy modelling to relate stated preferences with revealed preferences for the same individuals using empirical data describing the urban structure in Tampere, Finland. Following an analysis of the relationships between residents’ revealed preferences and urban structural variables, we examined the consistency of stated housing preferences with revealed preferences. The resul...

Departing from the traditional understanding of the social implications of urban design and the underlying notion of 'place', the chapter first questions its current relevance vis-à-vis the mediated city. It examines whether ICT has given rise to the establishment of new notions of space and place, identifying new design challenges for cities and rethought approaches to the production of space. In view of the latter, the chapter subsequently questions the manner with which digital media may facilitate inclusive design of public spaces. In order to address this objective, the chapter illustrates some interesting empirical data emanating from literature and research projects based in the UK, Poland and Malta. The case studies in the literature illustrate how ICTs are being used as tools within participatory processes for the inclusive design of urban public and recreational spaces and in order to gauge citizen/user expectations towards urban space. The chapter finally attempts to redefine public participation through ICT and to frame the above discussion within the potentially newly redefined role of urban designers involved in such processes. The underlying question to be addressed in this chapter, therefore, has to deal with the manner with which urban professionals may effectively achieve inclusive participatory design, particularly in light of new phenomena brought about by the mediated city and with the potential of this newly obtained and enriched data.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) exist to transform data into knowledge and present this knowledge in various formats for the purpose of supporting decisions. In doing so, GIS are portrayed as knowledge-based systems that are free from bias. In fact, GIS is a socially constructed technology. The entire process of GIS production, from software development to data creation, analysis, visualization and interpretation of GIS output, is characterized by political, economic and social motivations. This paper presents a model of communication for GIS that illuminates the potential for GIS to both marginalise and empower vulnerable and excluded groups in environmental management and planning situations at each stage of the GIS production process. Inclusive and empowering uses of GIS in recent research in South India are discussed. In particular, GIS was central to a process of conceptual and environmental modelling intended to support rehabilitation and management of the Cooum River in Chennai. This process incorporated the perspectives of citizens and NGOs into expression of system relationships that were represented in a GIS-based Decision Support System and simulation model. The process led to identification of qualitatively different kinds of system interventions than were tried (and failed) in the past to rehabilitate this extremely stressed system.

La convergence des systèmes d’information géographique et du Web se traduit aujourd’hui par l’émergence du géoweb lequel permet au grand public de lire et d’écrire les cartes. Dans la continuité des recherches sur les systèmes d’information géographique participatifs, cette démocratisation de la cartographie en ligne pose de nombreuses questions quant aux usages des technologies d’information géographique dans les processus de participation publique (diffusion d’information, cartographie participative, formalisation des propositions citoyennes, etc.). C’est l’objectif de cet article, lequel s’attache à analyser les potentialités participatives du géoweb pour encourager la concertation territoriale en termes de techniques, pratiques et contenus.

The value of grassroots involvement in climate-related decision-making has received attention in several official climate policy documents starting from Art. 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (UN, 1992, p. 17). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognizes the importance of traditional knowledge and the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) is a recognised constituency in the UNFCCC COP. The IPCC Third Assessment Report refers to ‘active participation by concerned parties’ (IPCC, 2001, p. 899) and draws attention to local problems and solutions. Moreover UNDP guidelines for adaptation strategies foster grassroots stakeholders’ participation.

Analysis of emotions has received recognition in urban studies as a mean to understand subjective quality of life. Availability of spontaneous user generated online urban data generated by users in location based social networks broadens possibilities for such analysis as described in a number of studies. However the LBSN data is not shared deliberately by users and is not meant to be an expression of emotions, which makes its representativeness and validity questionable. Another source of data - public participation geo-information systems - helps to overcome these limitations however may have its own, such as a small and biased sample. In this paper the results of the comparative analysis of the distribution of emotions in St. Petersburg, Russia, visualized with LBSN and PPGIS data, are presented. The dataset is formed from user-generated comments on urban venues from Google Places and data from PPGIS platform Imprecity (www.imprecity.ru), where citizens deliberately share their emotions and comments about public spaces. The data samples contain 1800 emotional marks from Imprecity and 2450 geolocated comments from Google Places marked by experts and then processed with Naïve Bayes Classifier. Comparison of positive and negative emotional maps created for Imprecity and Google Places shows shared tendencies in emotional distribution, such as concentration of emotions in the city centre and collocation of positive and negative emotions. There are also differences in emotional distribution: PPGIS data shows local “emotional” islands, which correspond to pedestrian areas and green spaces. The comparative analysis appears to be insightful and capable of revealing recurring spatial tendencies in subjective perception of the city.

A B S T R A C T Coral reefs provide important ecological services such as biodiversity, climate regulation, and cultural benefits through recreation and tourism. However, many of the world's reefs are declining, with Caribbean reefs suffering a significant decline in living corals over the past half century. This situation emphasizes the need to assess and monitor reef conditions using a variety of methods. In this study, a new method for assessing reef conditions to inform management using participatory mapping by coral reef " experts " in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) is described. Occupational SCUBA divers were recruited (n=87) to map coral reef conditions, uses, and threats (stressors) using an internet-based mapping website. The data reveal an uneven geographic distribution of reef conditions in the USVI with the most frequently mapped perceived healthy reef characteristics being: large amount of physical reef structure (n=872 markers); endangered or threatened species present (n=721); and large amount of live coral cover (n=615). The greatest perceived threats were: invasive species (n=606); water pollution (n=234); and unsustainable fishing (n=200). Areas of important reef characteristics, perceived threats to reefs, and perceived recovery potential were plotted to identify areas requiring critical management attention. The authors found that perceptions of healthy reef conditions outnumbered perceptions of reef threats for nine of the ten most familiar coral reefs; the most frequent activity type within the coral reefs was tourism diving; and for the most familiar coral reefs, the divers perceived a high recovery potential. Given the novelty of participatory mapping methods to assess coral reefs, the strengths and weaknesses of the method is evaluated. The authors further propose a management typology for categorizing reef areas to inform their future management. In the absence of primary data, or, as a supplement to underwater surveys and remotely-sensed data on reef condition, participatory mapping can provide a cost-effective means for assessing coral reef conditions while identifying place-specific reef locations requiring management attention.

No contexto das politicas públicas para agricultura familiar que objetivam-se gerar nova fonte renda e alimentar comunidades em vulnerabilidade é fundamental a participação dos atores envolvidos
na gestão dos projetos. Além disso, é importante a existência de um sistema de informação para tais políticas públicas e uma organização dos atores, a qual pode ser balizada pelos preceitos dos circuitos curtos de comercialização de alimentos (CCCA). Os CCCA compreendem a aproximação do produtor com o consumidor de forma que os mesmos conheçam-se e que um atenda a demanda do outro em um mesmo território. As abordagens para a coleta dos dados para o sistema de gestão de CCCA incluem os sistema de informação geográficas de participação pública (PPGIS) e os sistema de informação geográficas participatórios (PGIS). Os atores envolvidos em um CCCA incluem
os produtores, os consumidores e os agentes públicos. Dado as características dos atores é fundamental o uso dos conceitos da tecnologia social para desenvolvimento do sistema. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo descrever a aplicação de um sistema de gestão de circuitos curtos de comercialização de alimentos para auxiliar a tomada de decisão quanto a coleta e distribuição de alimentos para políticas públicas. A metodologia do trabalho compreendem as seguintes etapas: 1) Análises para definição de CCCA; 2) Área de estudo para desenvolvimento do sistema de gestão piloto; 3) Abordagem de coleta, gestão e análises dos dados; 4) Definição dos dados e metodologia de coleta dos mesmos; 5) Descrição dos atores e suas ações no sistema de gestão; 6) Arquitetura do sistema de gestão; 7) Arquitetura do banco de dados geográficos; 8) Desenvolvimento da interface de inserção de dados no sistema de gestão; e 9) Projeto cartográfico do sistema de gestão de CCCA. O projeto envolveu 69 produtores ligados a 8
centrais e 37 entidades. Os mapas apresentam a distribuição espacial destes atores na área de estudo. Não foi possível coletar todos os dados necessários. Contudo, foi possível definir os CCCA para a área de estudo a partir da concentração de produtores e entidades. Além disso, outro resultado foi a interface de coleta para tais dados. Para trabalhos futuros é fundamental a melhoria da fonte de dados, bem como do método de coleta dos dados com o atores. Além disso, o desenvolvimento de uma solução standalone para o sistema. Para a definição dos CCCA é proposto análise utilizando-se de outras ferramentas espaciais.

Since 1996, participatory GIS (PGIS) has facilitated avenues through which public participation can occur. One of the ways practitioners articulate social change associated with PGIS interventions has been to qualify success using the term ‘empowerment’. This paper explores the extent to which PGIS academic literature has utilised, defined, measured, and analysed empowerment. This research will demonstrate the degree to which PGIS has, from 1996 to 2014, appropriately and adequately taken into account the causative and direct relationship between a PGIS intervention and empowerment. This article identifies works broadly dealing with PGIS, then searches within that subset of literature for the term ‘empowerment.’ The findings are both quantitatively and qualitatively assessed to explore the trends within the PGIS literature over time and to contextualise the ways in which empowerment has been identified, understood, and articulated. We conclude with a discussion on the extent to which future PGIS research and practice has the ability to disrupt power inequalities.

It is assumed that the primary objective of using PPGIS is to stimulate more public or community involvement with decision-making. The application of these tools in the US has focused on high-tech applications to engage the masses in the process. However, in the context of developing countries, and precisely when dealing with the problems of the urban poor, will the rise of new technological fixes help solve traditional participation problems? This paper reviews the advent and application of these new technologies in the US and in Egypt, how they may be used to solve some issues relating to traditional public participation and whether a high-tech or a low-tech approach should be emphasized. It concludes with a comparison between the theory and application of public participation in both the US and Egypt. 

منطلقات  البنى التحتية لنظم المعلومات الجغرافية المجتمعية في البلدان النامية

 قضية البحث: يناقش هذا البحث ملائمة الفرضية الشائعة في العالم الغربي بأن التوسع في استخدام تقنيات نظم المعلومات الجغرافية المجتمعية (PPGIS) من شأنه تشجيع المزيد من مشاركة المجتمع المحلي في عملية صنع القرار المكاني. ومع ذلك ، وفي سياق البلدان النامية ، وبالذات عند التعامل مع مشكلات المناطق الحضرية ، هل من الواقعي افتراض بأن الحلول التكنولوجية الجديدة فقط هي مفتاح الحل ؟ وما هي حدود فعاليات هذه الأداة، وكيف يمكن أن نؤسس لنهج ملائم  تقنيا وفكريا لحل بعض القضايا التقليدية المتعلقة بالمشاركة؟

الهدف: تحديد وتصنيف بعض من المنطلقات الخاصة بمبادرات نظم المعلومات الجغرافية المجتمعية  PPGIS لبناء البنية التحتية لتطبيق التقنيات الحديثة على نحو أفضل، وذلك في ضوء نموذج تقييم مبني على ثلاثة محاور للوصول إلى ملخص للفرص والقيود المرتبطة بنظم المعلومات الجغرافية المجتمعية  PPGIS.

أهميته: انصب كثير من الاهتمام في مجال نظم المعلومات الجغرافية عندنا على التتبع غير الناقد للتقدم التقني للأنظمة في الغرب. حيث اعتمدت أكثر التطبيقات على الجوانب التحليلية والحسابية وتحسين النظام. بينما أغفلنا إلى حد ما قدراته في توسيع نطاق الدعم المجتمعي لاتخاذ القرار الاجتماعي. ومع بزوغ الاهتمام منذ أوائل القرن الحادي والعشرين على كيفية إدراج مشاركة الجمهور في إنتاج واستخدام نظم المعلومات الجغرافية، أصبح من الضروري متابعة هذا التطور الإيجابي ودراسة انعكاساته للعالم النامي، لأن حتى ذلك الاهتمام نشأ من مفهوم نظري غربي لمفهوم المشاركة الذي قد لا يتناسب مع أوضاعنا.

المنهجية: تحليل للعوامل التاريخية والتقنية التي تؤدي إلى دمج عنصري التخطيط القائم على المشاركة الإلكترونية ، وهما المشاركة المجتمعية ونهج تكنولوجيا المعلومات والاتصالات (ICT). ثم مقابلة المعوقات التي واجهت أدوات المشاركة المجتمعية لأكثر من نصف قرن مع الفرص التي تتيحها التقنيات الجديدة. ونظرا إلى أن مشاركة المجتمع المحلي على حد سواء من الناحية النظرية ومن حيث التقدم التقني هما وليدتا للفكر الغربي ، فلابد من النظر في الافتراضات والدوافع في حالتها الأصلية ومكان التطبيق. لهذا السبب ، فإن المنهجية تستعرض دراسات الحالة وتطبيق في كل الدول الغربية ومصر.