Public Participation GIS (PPGIS)

Public participation GIS (PPGIS) is a field within geographic information science that focuses on ways the public uses various forms of geospatial technologies to participate in public processes, such as mapping and decision making. Some members of the public participate in mapping activities simply to help inform the process. Others use information and map products developed with GIS in an attempt to alter the outcome of a decision-making process. Many problems impact PPGIS use, including a lack of familiarity with GIS, barriers to accessing necessary data, and limited ability to influence the decision.

Many government or public decisions about land and related resources, like forest management decisions or whether to allow a new development, rely on the interpretation and analysis of spatially complex information. Increasingly, citizens and citizen groups are employing some of the more accessible geospatial technologies to impact public decision processes. Community groups in Minneapolis, Minnesota, use GIS to participate in the formal planning processes of the city government. In South Africa, researchers work with communities to incorporate reflections of local knowledge into databases, in an effort to affect land reform processes. A rural community in Wisconsin has invited farmers to use a map displayed on a large touch screen to show where they would allocate new growth. In Ghana, natural resource data have been developed to provide a mutually accepted starting point for conversations between foresters and communities. Each of the processes, different as they seem, is commonly considered to be part of PPGIS.

The boundaries of PPGIS remain somewhat nebulous. The shared premise of this work is that the “public” or people most affected by the development or use of the GIS should somehow participate in one or more steps of the GIS-reliant processes. The diversity of these situations is a complication for those attempting to define or describe these activities, but the richness of examples frequently bundled together as PPGIS speak to the continued growth of these applications. Many of these disparate situations also share some common problems and concerns.