Improve public participation in planning processes by using web-based 3D-models for communication platforms

Due to the multiple influences of urban development onto the residents, public participation (PP) should become an essential part of the planning process. Also, on this account the EU is strengthening public participation and e-democracy by pushing forward the offers in these sectors in its member states, just because “to plan is not enough”. Yet, public participation is not as easy as it sounds like. Effective participation is based on well informed public, whereas lots of non-professionals find it hard to understand the content of plans and therefore have difficulties to see which consequences might be caused by the offered planning alternatives. To improve communication, co-operation and particularly participation, new “planning” tools have to be developed and used in the planning process. The paper discusses the use of 3D-visualisation to improve the understanding of planning contents and explains how web-based participation platforms might improve public participation in planning processes. The possible use of online participation tools will be explained by describing the EU VEPs project and the web-based 3D participation tool which has been developed for the case study urban redevelopment of the Rosensteinviertel in Stuttgart during the project, respectively which is still under development. Further the special function of a Web 3D Service (W3DS) is discussed regarding online participation systems using 3Dmodels.