Public Participation Geographic Information Systems: A Literature Review and Framework

Abstract

Public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) pertains to the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to broaden public involvement in policymaking as well as to the value of GIS to promote the goals of nongovernmental organizations, grassroots groups, and community-based organizations. The article first traces the social history of PPGIS. It then argues that PPGIS has been socially constructed by a broad set of actors in research across disciplines and in practice across sectors. This produced and reproduced concept is then explicated through four major themes found across the breadth of the PPGIS literature: place and people, technology and data, process, and outcome and evaluation. The themes constitute a framework for evaluating current PPGIS activities and a roadmap for future PPGIS research and practice.

Key Words:

• community-based organizations
• geographic information systems
• grassroots groups
• PPGIS
• social construction

Notes

1. Variants on PPGIS include participatory geomatics or participatory geographic information technologies (participatory GIT), the latter to include GIS, GPS, remote sensing software, and spatial data.

2. I am grateful to Nicholas Chrisman and Francis Harvey for this formulation.