Integrating GIS and Participatory Mapping in Community Development Planning

Geographic information and spatial data have played increasingly important roles in development planning and environmental decision making from top-down management to grass-roots participation. This paper presents a series of case studies that integrate traditional participatory mapping methods directly with ArcGIS and ArcPad and evaluate potential applications of new digital pen technology. This unique combination of mapping media allows community groups and project-affected people to work with familiar hand-drawn participatory maps and mapping techniques that retain the culturally appropriate symbols and use familiar media, while still taking advantage of the quantities and speed of information exchanged through GIS. These new maps have the appearance of a traditional participatory map, but each icon accesses the database of spatial information typically stored in a GIS. Overall, this paper focuses on the implications of this new tool for improving projectinformation exchange, stakeholder communication, and participatory decision making in a wide variety of development programs. Acknowledgements: This work was supported in parts by a grant from the Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation, a fellowship from Information Week Magazine and the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, the Carnegie Mellon University Electricity Industry Center (CEIC), and the Center for the Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change (CIS-HDGC). The author would like to thank Denys Candy (Community Partners Institute), Terri Baltimore (The Hill House), and Dave Coplan (The Mon Valley Providers Council) for their collaboration and invaluable community outreach, Paul Fischbeck and Kristen Kurland for their ongoing research and technical support, and Alyssa Torres for her assistance with the data analysis. Special thanks to community participants from the Hill District, Squirrel Hill, Wilkinsburg, and the Mon Valley. The views expressed are those of the author. Paper for the ESRI International User Conference, Sustainable Development and Humanitarian Affairs Track, San Diego, CA, July 2005. * Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, 129 Baker Hall, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Tel.: (412) 268-3378; e-mail: vajjhala@andrew.cmu.edu (S.P. Vajjhala).