The Second Life of Urban Planning? Using NeoGeography Tools for Community Engagement

The majority of the world's citizens now live in cities. Although urban planning can thus be thought of as a field with significant ramifications on the human condition, many practitioners feel that it has reached the crossroads in thought leadership between traditional practice and a new, more participatory and open approach. Conventional ways to engage people in participatory planning exercises are limited in reach and scope. At the same time, sociocultural trends and technology innovation offer opportunities to re-think the status quo in urban planning. NeoGeography introduces tools and services that allow non-geographers to use advanced geographical information systems. Similarly, is there a potential for the emergence of a neo-planning paradigm in which urban planning is carried out through active civic engagement aided by Web 2.0 and new media technologies thus redefining the role of practicing planners? This paper traces a number of evolving links between urban planning, NeoGeography, and information and communication technology. Two significant trends-participation and visualization-with direct implications for urban planning are discussed. Combining advanced participation and visualization features, the popular virtual reality environment Second Life is then introduced as a test bed to explore a planning workshop and integrated software event framework to assist narrative generation. An approach to harness and analyze narratives using virtual reality logging is discussed to make transparent how users understand and interpret proposed urban designs.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/17489725
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission from Taylor and Francis
• Authors:
  • Foth, Marcus
  • Bajracharya, Bhishna
  • Brown, Ross
  • Hearn, Greg
• Publication Date: 2009-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 97-117
• Serial:
  • Journal of Location Based Services
  • Volume: 3
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis
  • ISSN: 1748-9725
  • Serial URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tlbs20

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: City planning; Geographic information systems; Planning methods; Strategic planning; Virtual reality
• Identifier Terms: NeoGeography
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01141922
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 20 2009 7:40AM