Public Participation Using Web-Based GIS

The last few years have seen a tremendous increase in the number of proprietary geographic information system (GIS) packages offering web-based add-ons. The global GIS industry seems to have fully endorsed the web, and distributed systems as a way of serving GIS data to the world and getting the world in return to use its software. This is hardly surprising, I think, given the marketing opportunities the web represents and the need of existing clients to provide Internet and Intranet solutions to data sharing and systems access. Perhaps what is more surprising is the opportunity (or lack of it) that these developments represent for public use of GIS and wider public involvement in spatial decisionmaking problems. I say `lack of' because, although the technology exists to make public participation GIS (PPGIS) via the Internet fully realisable, there are precious few applications out there that have seized the moment and implemented on-line PPGIS where the intention is to solicit true public participation within the context of a real decisionmaking problem. There are a good number of examples where on-line PPGIS has been used in an experimental guise for research purposes, my own included, but there still seem to be a number of significant barriers to widespread institutional adoption. The papers in this special issue of the journal describe recent research in the field of web-based PPGIS. They range from development of PPGIS architectures and on-line approaches to visualising community planning issues through to case studies and applications. Together they clearly demonstrate the possibilities of the approach, but, as we all know from our own experience, public involvement in the planning process is still very much limited and constrained by traditional practices and power relationships. There are perhaps two main reasons for this hiatus between technological possibilities on the one hand and the practical realities of the planning system on the other. First, although the difficult technological problems of putting GIS on the web have largely been solved, there still exists a series of sociotechnological issues that are, in many ways, harder to resolve. Although the Internet may seem second nature to most readers of this journal, there are still many people to whom it (and computers in general) remains a mystery. In the same vein, GIS has often been criticised as being an elitist technology, used (and abused) by those with access to data, expensive software, and high levels of training (Pickles, 1995). Although on-line GIS addresses some of these issues by making some data easily available and giving free access to GIS software, this is still highly dependent on the intended user having Internet access and appropriate IT training in the first place. Thus, part of the reason we have not yet witnessed the take-off of web-based PPGIS, may simply be lack of demand and ability on the part of the user. The second reason has more to do with maintaining the status quo in the balance of power between elected representatives and professionals on the one hand and the electorate on the other. It is likely that many people in positions of power regard developments in on-line PPGIS with some scepticism, doubting the ability of the general public to grasp fully the intricacies of the planning processöand therefore they doubt the ability of the public to make useful contributions. In many ways they may be right. Planners are trained to make decisions about our urban and rural fabric, so why divert those decisions to an untrained public? They may also be fearful (or resentful) of the implications implied in the shift of Guest editorial Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 2001, volume 28, pages 803 ^ 804