Increasing efficiency and participation in formal urban planning processes.
Rate:
Categories:
Challenge
EU member states are required by law to involve the public, government departments and public agencies in the planning process for most public projects, but especially in the case of urban or landscape planning. Public consultation is usually complicated, time-consuming and almost always still conducted in an analogue fashion (meetings, written submissions, planning documents sent by post, etc). Internet-based participation in land use planning by government departments, public agencies and members of the public saves money while at the same time increases the administrative department’s transparency and appeal.
Solution
The Internet-based public participation platform DEMOS-Plan is designed to enable the entire formal participatory process to be handled on the Internet and thus, can offer optimum solutions, specifically for the coordinating body. It is intuitive and simple and can be easily operated even by relatively inexperienced users. The software supports the coordinator throughout, from the setting up of new public consultations to the analysis and evaluation stage. Parallel processes, such as changes to several planning tiers covering an area, can also be handled clearly using one single platform. DEMOS-Plan can be integrated into an existing geo-data infrastructure. This leads to an efficient environment in which minimal changes to the regional infrastructure must be made.
Results
The solution has been developed in close cooperation with the City of Hamburg and tested in two real world trials. The pilot application in Hamburg showed that 60 of 80 involved public agencies decided to use the online process and lead to a significant reduction in printing and personal costs. The roll-out of DEMOS-Plan in Hamburg and other North-German regions is currently in the preparation stages.