Assessing Public Participation Through Different Lens: The Case of Public Participation Geographic Information Systems

Abstract

Public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) pertain to the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to broaden public involvement in policymaking. Despite the importance of this topic, there is a lack of evaluation methods regarding the participation of the public through PPGISs. To fill this gap, the objective of this study is to analyze the level of e-democracy of PPGIS’s websites and identify lessons that will enable PPGIs to develop appropriate strategies for e-democracy implementation and diffusion. To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, we analyze PPGISs websites; we also apply a multiple case study methodology.