Participatory urban planning through the use of new technologies: an evaluation by experts

Abstract This paper aims to evaluate the experts acceptance of the public participation, the use of new technologies, and to investigate how they evaluate alternative methodologies such as the Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS). We assume that new methodological approaches, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), can improve public participation in urban planning processes, given the difficulty to include the population perspective, and the need to renew the practices for dealing with the flow of information in the digital era. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted with architects working in the urban planning area, as part of the methodological procedures. The results show that despite institutional barriers and the necessity of technical training, the public participation and the use of new tools are accepted, and that PPSIG can help in the difficult task of incorporating the urban space users perspective, in the respondents opinion.