Evaluating the scalability of public participation in urban land use planning: A comparison of Geoweb methods with face-to-face meetings

Abstract

Two modes of participatory engagement in local land use planning are contrasted and compared: the asynchronous mode enabled by Geoweb applications for collecting and deliberating public preferences, and the same-place/same-time mode exemplified by public meetings. Using data from a public participation process that took place between June 2014 and July 2015 in Poznań, Poland, the article compares the scalability of each mode and evaluates it from the planners’ perspective. The findings show that Geoweb applications scale public participation more effectively than public meetings. The ability to attract a relatively large number of diverse participants contributed to the positive evaluation of participation outcomes by planners. The results of online participation have been reflected in the land use plan provisions and improved the transparency and access to planning documents. Several issues related to online participation including: bridging the educational gap, the digital divide, and focusing the attention of participants on a specific problem at hand remain still unresolved.