Argumaps for Spatial Planning

In their contributions, participants of spatial planning discussions refer to geographic objects. In this paper, an explicit linkage between online maps and arguments is proposed for being used in a World-Wide Webbased support systems for Collaborative Spatial Decision-Making (CSDM). The representation and storage of geo-referenced arguments in Argumentation Maps ("Argumaps") will advance the level of integration and utility of asynchronous discussion forums and digital plans. Geographically distributed users involved in public planning debates will be able to query and analyze ongoing discussions and to submit constructive contributions. The paper summarizes related concepts of Argumentation Theory and Geographic Information Science, and describes a potential Argumap implementation based on two existing software tools for discussion and for mapping, respectively.