The Second Life of urban planning? Using neogeography tools for community engagement

Foth, Marcus and Bajracharya, Bhishna and Brown, Ross A. and Hearn, Gregory N. (2009) The Second Life of urban planning? Using neogeography tools for community engagement. Journal of Location Based Services, 3(2). pp. 97-117.

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DOI: 10.1080/17489720903150016

Official URL: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~cont...

Abstract

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, socio-cultural 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 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 visualisation – with direct implications for urban planning are discussed. Combining advanced participation and visualisation features, the popular virtual reality environment Second Life is then introduced as a test bed to explore a planning workshop and an integrated software event framework to assist narrative generation. We discuss an approach to harness and analyse narratives using virtual reality logging to make transparent how users understand and interpret proposed urban designs.

ID Code:	26007
Item Type:	Journal Article
Additional URLs:	Publisher
Keywords:	virtual reality, geospatial web, urban informatics, urban planning, neogeography, neoplanning
ISSN:	1748-9725
Subjects:	Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY (160000) > HUMAN GEOGRAPHY (160400) > Urban and Regional Studies (excl. Planning) (160404) Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND DESIGN (120000) > URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING (120500) > Urban Design (120508) Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND DESIGN (120000) > URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING (120500) > Community Planning (120501) Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > LANGUAGES COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE (200000) > COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA STUDIES (200100) > Communication Technology and Digital Media Studies (200102) Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES (080000) > LIBRARY AND INFORMATION STUDIES (080700) > Social and Community Informatics (080709) Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND DESIGN (120000) > URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING (120500) Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES (080000) > ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND IMAGE PROCESSING (080100) > Virtual Reality and Related Simulation (080111) Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY (160000) > SOCIOLOGY (160800) > Urban Sociology and Community Studies (160810)
Divisions:	Research Centres > ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation QUT Faculties and Divisions > Faculty of Science and Technology QUT Faculties and Divisions > Creative Industries Faculty Institutes > Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation
Copyright Owner:	Copyright 2009 Taylor & Francis
Deposited On:	29 Jun 2009 14:09
Last Modified:	14 Aug 2009 01:56

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