A Method for Incorporating Community Priorities into GIS

Abstract

Public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) have demonstrated the potential for GIS to engage the public in collaborative efforts to address community problems. While most PPGIS approaches emphasize taking GIS out to the community, the approach described in this paper uses GIS to support the inclusion of community priorities in the landscape planning process through off-site analysis. The case study outlines a four-phase method for collecting place-specific information about community goals during a participatory planning forum and subsequently using GIS to identify spatial distribution of goal priorities for the Wabash River corridor in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. The discussion section focuses on lessons learned during this research and possible directions for improving the use of GIS to incorporate public priorities into landscape planning efforts.