UNDER CONSTRUCTION

According to the Council of Europe Conference of Ministers Responsible For Spatial/Regional Planning (CEMAT) “Spatial planning is the main instrument for:

• rational use of land, spatial scarceness;
• urban and rural development, including natural and cultural heritage and other aspects;
• management of natural resources and marine space;
• conflicting objectives (e.g. energy production and transmission, housing, traffic, leisure and tourism, biodiversity, protection from natural hazards etc” ¹⁾.

A participatory approach to spatial planning, thus including multiple actors such as civil society in the planning process, is essential since spatial planning affects whole communities. Spatial planning processes are important in (re)shaping regions and its interconnections with other region and therefore play an important role in working towards a sustainable, balanced, and shared territorial development in the Alpine Space.

• More democratic planning process
• More transparent government
• Increased sense of responsibility and ownership by local actors
• Increased efficiency: consulting with local actors about their needs and concerns.
• Raising the citizens’ awareness and responsibility for their local community
• Providing training and experience in participatory democracy
• Generating policies and measures that the citizens themselves request ^{2) 3)}

• Demanding and time consuming process
• Adding multiple stakeholders to the planning process means an extra challenge to an already difficult and complex process.
• Not all stakeholders equitably represented in planning process
• Unrealistic expectations of stakeholders ^{4) 5)}

The field of spatial planning has become more and more intertwined with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GIS tools can be used to analyse and visualise the outcomes of spatial planning decisions and are useful to model different spatial planning scenarios ⁶⁾. GIS can strenghten the participatory planning process through the involvement of (local) stakeholders in the use and/or production of geographical information; so called 'Participatory GIS' applications (PGIS) ⁷⁾. According to Dunn (2007): “A Participatory GIS celebrates the multiplicity of geographical realities rather than the disembodied, objective and technical ‘solutions’ which have tended to characterize many conventional GIS applications” ⁸⁾. PGIS gives legitimacy to local or 'non-official' geographical information and empowers local communities in decision making processes. The internet has increased the opportunities and accessibility of PGIS (Web.2.0).

AlpES project

http://www.participatorymethods.org/method/participatory-geographical-information-systems-pgis