Dashboard as a Platform for Community Engagement in a City Development—A Review of Techniques, Tools and Methods

Abstract

A city should be planned to provide an appropriate amount and quality of public spaces, services, and mobility for any life activity. For citizens to be actively involved in improving the quality of the space around them and thus participate in shaping the place they live in, they need knowledge about the city and its strengths and weaknesses. They need access to data about the city in an easy-to-use and interpretable form through specific tools. An example is indicators, which present data about the city in different categories important for city development. Excellent tools for transferring information between a city and its citizens are new web-based solutions such as dashboards. This article reviews selected dashboards in terms of their thematic scope, the number of indicators presented, data sources and tools for data analysis and visualization. In the discussion, the main problems related to data publication, analytical tools and cartographic presentation are identified. The recommendations propose two dashboard models: simple and complex, depending on the purpose and needs of the user. Comparing the values of indicators in different areas of the city can contribute to increased active participation of residents and their involvement in decision making about their surroundings. A review of dashboards showed little use of the potential of IT and geo-analytical tools in building a real dialog with residents.