Theory And Practice Of Public Participation Geographic Information System

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a product of modern multidisciplinary technical combination based on geography, information technology and computer technology, Its appearance has greatly enhanced the people's ability to address issues related to the geography, But GIS in the field of social sciences is little touched, since the 1990s, People began to realize GIS should not only be considered as a problem-solving tool. Similar to the development of other technology, the development of GIS is a process of socialization too. Since then, more and more experts and scholars began to pay attention to GIS and social studies. Meanwhile, in the wake of economic development and improvement of the quality of citizens, the democratic political awareness is growing, Many people focus on the decision-making for public affairs, and hope to have a right to know and to participate in public affairs, and to involve in the decision-making process .In this context, public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) came into being.PPGIS is a new frontier science that comprised of social science such as sociology, planning, management, organizational behavior, etc. and natural science such as geography, computer science, information science, etc. it's a combination of multidisciplinary science, and a integration of social behavior and technology in a specific geographic space, It's process-oriented, employs internet and geographic information system as a platform, through a bottom-up broad public participation, demonstrates the new cooperative relationship between the government, social groups, experts in the field and individuals, its application covers all social and public affairs, aims to enhance social democracy, increase scientific of decision-making for public affairs, improve people's quality of life and to promote social progress and sustainable development. Based on a project funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce–WebPolis (an online community decision support system), taking its development and implementation as an example, firstly, the theory of PPGIS is explored, secondly, the scientific theoretical system for PPGIS is created, and the relevant technology is summarized; Then the organized and complement methods for PPGIS are introduced, the concept of Asynchronous organized participation is first proposed; Followed WebPolis system design, function and key technologies is demonstrated in detail, furthermore, the role of Web and GIS in this system and how to assist the public involving in the community planning is discussed; Finally, the challenges that PPGIS faced in practice and ethical are introduced.The following shows the innovations in this paper:(1) Building the scientific theoretical system for PPGIS, this system is the first proposed in China. PPGIS is considered as an new frontier science, which is the intersection and integration of natural and social sciences, and the social sciences it touched, including planning, management, organizational behavior, sociology, psychology, politics and law, Economics, etc., the natural sciences it touched, including computer science, geography, system science, mathematics, engineering, and so on;(2) Elaboration of a practical application --WebPolis (an online community decision support system), the whole process from its design to its realize is elaborated in detail, knowledge base, consensus building application (CBA) components and decision support toolbox are three innovative technologies in WebPolis.(3) By analysis of the disadvantages of traditional organized method, a web-based asynchronous organized participation thinking is clearly presented for the first time ,on the meantime, the standard for comparison in participation style is pointed out. Different organized methods are analyzed and summarized.(4) The challenges PPGIS encountered in practice and ethic, including the harm of community life, marginalization of information, access to public information and privacy,and ignoring the planning and decision-making, ambiguity on determining public scope.