Visualisation Techniques For Facilitating Stakeholder Decision Making In Urban Planning

Public participatory geographical information systems (PPGIS) are becoming widely recognised as powerful tools for informed participatory decision-making processes within urban planning projects. This paper discusses a technique recently used within a case study for providing visualisations of traffic flows and how to incorporate local community perceptions of their neighbourhoods into a PPGIS software tool. In particular, the paper demonstrates a new methodology for visualisation of qualitative social data, facilitating dialogue and discussion amongst stakeholders and planning professionals in an urban context. The paper concludes with a discussion on techniques for developing software and presenting visualisations in an understandable and usable manner catering for a diversity of participants.