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Participatory GIS and mapping

A general review focusing on technology and data

Thierry Joliveau Saint-Etienne University CNRS UMR EVS

Thierry.joliveau@univ-st-etienne.fr

Cartographic Challenges. Bergamo. 23-24 April 2009

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Starting with a naive question

Do Public Participatory GIS (PPGIS) have a tendency to acclimatize more easily in certain

regions of the World ?

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Where can you find PPGIS ?

When you read the (huge) scientific bibliography about PPGIS

It seems to be more common in USA or Canada than in Europe (UK excluded)In Africa, more current in English than in French speaking countries…False impression ? Linguistic bias ?Let’s have a look to the French case

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PPGIS in France

“Not any serious experience of Public Participation GIS have ever been observed in France” (Peribois 2007) Some explanations :

French model of local governanceComplexity and redundancies in the organization of local authoritiesGrowing discrepancy between real decision at intermunicipal level and election at municipal levelProblems of dissemination and public access to Geographical Information (Roche 2003)

More fundamental reasons related to French socio-territorial organization (no grassroots and local based communities as in north-american society) ?

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PPGIS in France

In the 5-10 last years, things have been changingReference to participation is general in France Participatory approaches are becoming common at local scale or for national and large scale project GIS are very intensively used by municipalities and local or regional bodies.

But PPGIS is still not a real keyword in FranceNeither in urban and land planningNor in French research agenda

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Participative mapping

Participating planning is developing quite fastFrench researchers have been involved in Participative Mapping since the beginning

In France (Gautier, 2001) (Chastel et al. 2001) (Thinon 2003) (Letissier 2004)in French-speaking African countries (Clouet 2001) (d'Aquino 2002) (Boutinot et al. 2009)In other southern countries as well (Caron 2001) (Bonin et al. 2002) (Imbernon 2002)

Italian researchers are very active in French-speaking African countries (Burini 2005) (Casti 2005) (Casti 2009) Participative Mapping is rarely connected to GIS technology

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What is PPGIS ?

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Origin of PPGIS

A specific geographical context (North America) : PPGIS was coined during 2 meetings at National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis in 1996An answer to the critiques of GIS as return to positivism, instrument of capital control, government surveillance. In response development of a new generation of GIS: GIS/2 (GIS two or GIS too)A slogan : “empower less privileged groups in the society, improve the transparency, influence government policy” A question : How GIS technology could support public participation for a variety of possible applications ? PPGIS were born in direct relation with debates within the academic scene about role of GIS in society and social science.

(Sieber 2006)

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PPGIS or PGIS ?

Participatory GIS come from “counter mapping”, (mapping against status quo), community action and is promoted as an extension of GIS to development countries situation

North : Public Participation GIS PPGIS is practiced in the North as an intersection of Participatory

Planning and Geographical Information Science and Technology

South : Participatory GIS PGIS is generally practiced in the South as an intersection of

Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) methods and GIT&S.

http://www.iapad.org

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Progressive extension

New specialists attracted : urban planners, environmental experts, social workers

new experiments and practicesMore professionalized organizations adapted PPGIS : NGO in developing countries or community organizations in charge of local developmentIn USA and industrialized countries structure of community organizations has progressivly shifted toward professionalized organizations

Expanded budgets, range of activities, numbers of paid staff (Elwood 2006)

Now PPGIS is a global umbrella embracing a multiplicity of contexts, methods, actors, situations, disciplines, milieus

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PPGIS : a complex amalgam

Action-oriented and pragmatic field and active academic research fieldTechnology oriented questions with a strong epistemological and critical echo

Critical cartography (Crampton 2006), social and critical GIS (Pickles 1995) (Schuurman 2000, 2002)

An interdisciplinary research grounded in value and ethical frameworks : social justice, ecological sustainability, improvement of quality of life, redistributive justice, nurturing of civil society, etc

And a set of tools of methods used by professionals of planning and development

Doug Aberley and Renee Sieber http://www.iapad.org/ppgis_principles.htm#ppgis_term

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Outside of the PPGIS field

Main research questions addressed in France

Research works in France

Geographical Information technology barely emerged as a subsidiary questionThe focus is on production and use of spatial representations :

Role and status of spatial representation in “territorial” projectHow to use spatial representation to support participative approaches in different fields of application : environment, landscape, urban planning

Two approachesPragmatic approach : experimenting different kind of methodologies for fostering participation in “controlled” and real conditions as wellTheoretical approach of the act of” spatially representing” in territorial governanceRelations between theory and experimentation

(Debarbieux et al. 2002, 2003) (Lardon et al. 2001) (Lardon 2008) (Lussault 2003)

Technology questions not addressed

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Some recent examples

The workshop “Spatial Modeling and Partipatory Territorial Decision” took place in Saint-Etienne in June 2007Series of participatory workshops in the form of gamesObjectives : gathering researchers and professionals for:

Learning participatory toolsEvaluating the appropriation of the tools by the usersImproving the toolsSharing experiences and considering the diffusion of the tools and methods (Batton-Hubert et al. 2009)

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http://www.emse.fr/site/SAGEO2007/CDROM/articles-ateliers.html

Spatial reconstruction game

Questioning individual and collective space representations by assembling various objects in land planning context

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Ramadier, Broner

Environmental negotiation simulation platform

Simulate an environmental negotiation through a role play and the mobilization of MultiCriteria Analysis, GIS and hydro modeling techniques

16Paran, Mimoun et Batton-Hubert

Territory game

A collective elaboration of spatial representations for analyzing a territorial situation, emphasizing stakes and development options

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Lardon, Angeon, Loudiyi, Planchat-Hery,

Using film for building Landscape architecture scenarios

The landscape architecture options of a new urbanized area are discussed. Participants illustrate their point of view by extracting and commenting pictures taken out from a video

18Lelli, Sirven

Using 3D diagrams for discussing landscape stakes

Building a local plan by locating pleasant and unpleasant landscape elements

19Claire Planchat-Héry , Yves Michelin

Secteur 2

ZONAGE A

cultures

remembrées

cultures

remembrées

cultures

remembrées

vigne+cabanon

boisements

ripisylve à++

Modifications

N

NHb ou AHVoir des plantations

Using 3D digital models in planning

Experiment 3D Models for urban planning

20Jacquinod, Joliveau

Using cell-automata for simulating the effects of a new by-pass road

Evaluate the interest of C-A tools for comparing development scenarios

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Edwige Dubos-Paillard, Patrice Langlois

Building cooperative scenarios for planning

Experimenting qualitative modeling by causal relations to simulate a territorial system

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Rabino

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Main results of the experiment

ProsAn interesting way to debate of different methodological approaches Fostering the capacity to invent, build and test new solutions Mixed audience (professionals and researchers) facilitates the transfer of tools and methods to real problems

ConsDifficulties in taking in count the planning process as a wholeNo link to a more conceptual and general approach of planningHow to connect different tools on the same problem

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Back to PPGIS

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Review of questions addressed in PPGIS literature

Several typologies proposed (Schlossberg 2005) (Turkucu et al. 2008)A very useful or complete review of pending themes and critical questions (Sieber 2006) :

Place and PeopleTechnology and DataProcessOutcomes and Evaluation

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Critical questions

Place and PeopleContextStakeholders and other actors

Building communities Politics and governance regime

PublicProcess

Systems implementation and SustainabilityParticipation and Communication in the Policy Making ProcessDecision Making Structure and Processes

Outcomes and EvaluationGoals and OutcomesMeasurements and Evaluation

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A focus on technology and data

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Critical questions

Sieber’s questions :Extent of GIS TechnologyAccessibility of DataAppropriateness of InformationRepresentation of Knowledge

Representation/visualization Local Knowledge Combination of different knowledge Expert /lay knowledge

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Place of GIS

Important : Obviously, data and technology has to be connected to context, places, people, process, outcomes… As Sieber writes :

“It is an odd concept to attribute to a piece of software the potential ton enhance or limit public participation in policy making. However, that is exactly what has happened with GIS (…)" Yes, but GIS is not really a piece of software…

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What is and is not GIS ?

GiS is not …… a software … a mapping tool… a database

GIS is an Information SystemInformation is not easy to define (Poore et Chrisman 2006) GIS is composite. It includes people, institutions, data and data bases, computers and software, methods and protocols that have to be set up to produce one evolving outcomea sort of socio-technical arrangement including (but not limited to) fluxes and transformations of data

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GIS vs Cartography

Historically GIS and Cartography as “Science” are very close

GIS could be quickly considered as a “dematerialization” of scientific maps

They have in common:A reference to a commensurable Euclidian spaceinteroperability” where one dataset is commensurable with anotherSpace conceptualized into points, lines, areas, and surfaces (Crampton 2006) Scientific goals, perfect formalization of a language …Preeminence of the concrete, material and visual dimension of the objects (Casti 2009) More oriented to built environment, physical processes than to describe social relations

Critical GIS and cartography

GIS and cartography have faced with the same critical approach

Political and social implications not consideredTechnocratic, abstract and Cartesian approach interested in formal processes and objects and not in their role in human experience, personal or collectiveNo place for social interpretation, cultural transmission, idiosyncrasies … Realist and positivist philosophy…

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GIS vs mapping

Opposition between GIS as hardware and software for interactive spatial data visualization and maps, mapping and mapmaking as concrete objects is fading away

“Geodigitalisation” is a global a rapid trend Geoinformation processing combines brain, algorithms, hand, eye and mouse , paper and screen

D’Aquino (2002) notices that in a rural African contextlearning to use a Role Playing Game on a computer running a Multi Agent System is not difficult for ordinary peoplereading and making a map needs anyway some training too

What maters is not computer or not computer but that the combination of tools and practices fits the project

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A few examples of interaction with maps through a computer

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Innovating GIS hardware and software

a touch-sensitive tablet connected to GIS

“Paint the region” organization

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3737(Dong 2006)

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(Dong 2006)

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Solid models are useful in southern countries

(Rambaldi 2004)

… and anywhere else (Thau, South of France).

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(Maurel 2008)

Solid models can furnish data to a GIS

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(Rambaldi 2004)

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The inverse operation is also possible

http://www.ideasolid.com/applications.php?idapp=1

Source: société idéasolid

43DiamondTouch

http://www.circletwelve.com/

Socio-technical evolutions

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Web, opensource, mobility

Access to data (Web mapping) and tools (Web GIS) on the web

Remote access and interactionNew data available (Inspire Directive in Europe)Not all the public can be touched but a larger and larger audience is targeted

OpensourceSoftware (diffusion, community of developers)Data (i.e. Openstreet Map)

MobilityGeolocationOn the ground work

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« Neogeography »

Beyond this inadequate word a very interesting process considering Participatory GIS or mappingNew “Web 2.0” tools (virtual globes ,mashup, api) are based on geospatial technology but did not spring from the academic or industrial fields as GIS or cartography New people involved in building tools that allow ordinary people to generate personal or collective geospatial data on the WebPeople spatially interact through social networks and provide a lot of personal and collective informationThese tools are already used in local participatory projects (in London with Google Maps API)

Ambiguities

One slogan :Cartography and GIS are no longer in the hands of experts but in the hands of the users.

Some factsUser Generated Content is supposed to highly profitableSpace, location, place are a huge market opportunityNew economic actors emerge in the industry that are global with an hegemonic project (Microsoft, Google, phone operators…)

Some questionsStatus and protection of personal dataNot actual business model for the “Web 2.0” activity

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First example : Google Map Maker

Google Map Maker allows you to contribute, share and edit map informationFor certain regions around the world (Southern countries), you can locate yourself, draw, label, describe and moderate local map features.

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Google Map Maker

A debate on PPGIS.net forum

"By submitting User Submissions to the Service, you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display, distribute, and create derivative works of the User Submission." GoogleOpensource alternative : Openstreet Map

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2nd example : participative political campaign

Google Map API used for the “participative” primary campaign of V. Pécresse for next year regional elections

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Zoom

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Conclusion

GIS, spatial databases, maps, location tools and services are going to be integrated in something more general.

The process is global even if it depends on the level of computer and Internet equipment of a country

Frontiers between GIS-map producers and GIS-map users are blurring We have to understand how “ego-centered tools and methods” will be articulated to “geo-centererd tools” (Ormaux vocabulary)We cannot anymore think maps or GIS databases as disconnected“They help make connections to other representations and to other experienced places” (Hanna et al. 2004)The questions addressed by PPGIS have never been so essential

Thank you !

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Various definitions of maps

A conventional representation of Earth surface“Une carte est une représentation géométrique plane, simplifiée et conventionnelle, de tout ou partie de la surface terrestre dans un rapport de similitude convenable qu'on appelle l'échelle. “F. Joly. la cartographie. PUF

A representation of spaces in a formal language“Représentation fondée sur un langage caractérisée par la construction d'une image analogique d'un espace” (Dictionnaire de la Géographie, de l’espace et des société de Lévy-Lussaut)

Maps as a facilitator in human experience,Graphic representations that facilitate a spatial understanding of things, concepts, conditions, processes, or events in the human world” (Harley and Woodward 1987) cited by (Crampton 2006)