Computer-Mediated Cooperative Spatial Planning

Decision making on spatial planning problems has to integrate recent advancements on geographical information systems with a framework that supports fair, rational and eff icient decision making procedures. Such a framework will assist government and businesses with the retrieval, use and reuse of information in cooperative, distributed planning procedures requiring access to spatial data. This paper gives an overview of a computer-mediated group decision support system for the World Wide Web, namely ZENO. The target is to provide intelli gent assistance to human mediators and other kinds of “ trusted third parties” during the above procedures. The role of the system is to remain neutral and help assure that the interests and goals of all members of a group, regardless of their status, are respected and appreciated. In this paper, the system’s features are ill ustrated with a retrospective model of a real urban planning example, concerning the allocation of a new technology park in the area of the city of Bonn, where more than eighty communities, local and federal authorities, and other organizations have been requested to submit their suggestions, objections and comments on a spatial planning problem.