eDemocracy Tools for Municipal Master Plan Discussion

1
e-Democracy Tools for Municipal Master Plan
Discussion

• José Lino Oliveira
• jose.lino_at_inescporto.pt

2
Agenda

• Context
• Goal and Motivation
• The Concept
• Pilot Municipalities
• Porto Municipal Master Plan Discussion
• Maia Discussion of Detail Plan
• Conclusions
• Questions

3
Context

• Municipalities have the responsibility to assure
  the correct management of their territory.
• Exists a set of regulation instruments that give
  support to the Territorial Management
• Municipal Plans (ex Municipal Master Plan,
  Detail Plans)
• The revision or creation process goes through a
  sequence of several steps.
• One of these steps is known as Public Discussion.

4
Goal and Motivation

• The Public Discussion period is of great
  democratic importance.
• Local authorities have the legal duty to ponder
  all public made proposals, as well as answer
  information request during the Public Discussion
  period.
• The main problem
• Spatial and temporal constrains are increasingly
  placing citizens apart of the participation in
  such acts.
• The goal
• With the intention of reversing such tendency, an
  effort was made to develop a new electronic
  service.

5
The Concept

• Web Map technology
• Allows interactive map navigation.
• Constraint lack of support for discussion.
• Discussion Forum technology
• Allows users to discuss a matter on an
  asynchronous mode.
• Constraint lack of spatial reference.
• The Goal
• Merge this two technologies into one, creating an
  integrated bidirectional system that allows
  better interaction
• Report the problem and provide an answer over a
  more collaborative environment.

WebMap Forum
Web Map
Discussion Forum
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Pilot Municipalities (Porto)

• Main Functionalities
• User Registration,
• Registered Participation Anonymous Following of
  discussion,
• Legislation,
• Message Georeferenciation,
• Messages Geographical Search,
• Map Navigation and Queries,
• Content Integration,
• Back-Office Administration.

Municipal Master PlanPublic Discussion Period
www.cm-porto.pt
7
Pilot Municipalities (Porto)

• Results (3 months discussion)

Online participation
Daily averages
Municipal Master PlanPublic Discussion Period
www.cm-porto.pt
Public participation ()
8
Pilot Municipalities (Maia)

• Main Functionalities
• User Registration,
• Registered Participation Only,
• Anonymous Viewing of web map,
• Discussion Between Citizen and Municipality Only,
• Legislation,
• Message Georeferenciation,
• Messages Geographical Search,
• Map Navigation,
• Back-Office Administration.

Detail Plan "Directional Center Public
Discussion Period
www.cm-maia.pt
www.maiadigital.pt
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Pilot Municipalities (Maia)

• Results (1 month discussion)

Participation
Daily averages
Detail Plan "Directional Center Public
Discussion Period
www.cm-maia.pt
www.maiadigital.pt
10
Conclusions

• Citizens are interested in municipality issues.
• This channel (Internet) is preferred, at least to
  consult the plan.
• Positive contributes to every actor
• Local authority got feedback.
• Citizens, a new channel for expressing opinions.
• More rational than emotional discussion flow.
• Registration avoided jeopardizing the
  discussion.
• Possibility to re-use this technology as
  support for internal discussion among plan
  builders.
• Difficulties
• Geographic data quality.
• High involvement from local authorities to keep
  the discussion focused.

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Questions

• Demo available at
• http//gis.inescporto.pt/demos

?