Research & third-party funding

Participation manager

partiMAN - the participation manager for collaborative decision-making

Aims and content of the project

Active participation in planning processes for the legally compliant realization and increased acceptance of projects in spatial and urban land-use planning, flood protection, as part of the energy transition or all forms of informal planning is becoming increasingly important.
In the past, a number of online participation tools have been developed for this purpose as part of e-government initiatives. As a rule, they are based on standardized planning procedures, such as those used in urban land-use planning. In the future, however, active participation and communication between planners, decision-makers and stakeholders will continue to gain in importance. The one-sided communication direction of planner > affected party > decision-maker must be further developed into active, collaborative communication that is iteratively integrated into the planning and decision-making process. In the future, those involved will no longer be integrated into the process as a target group, but as discussion partners.

Web-based information technologies with the integration of social networks and standardized GIS-based analysis functions will play an important role. To this end, a WebGIS-based modular system is being developed that can be individually configured for all forms of online participation on a user-based basis. Rights-based administration of content and intelligent wizard-based analysis of objections are intended to speed up planning procedures and increase acceptance.

Contact us

Duration

November 2014 - February 2018

Project staff

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Korinna Bade
Project management, coordination
Susanne Raabe
Planning tools, use of GIS and forms of participation
Lars Schütz
Visual Analytics
Dr.-Ing. Matthias Pietsch (consultant)
Planning tools, use of GIS and forms of participation
René Krug (consultant)
Information and knowledge management in planning and design

Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
Department 1 - Agriculture, Ecotrophology and Landscape Development
Department 5 - Computer Science and Languages
KAT Competence Center: "Digital Planning and Design" of Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
Professor Hellriegel Institut e.V.

GfI - Society for Information Technology mbH

Otto von Guericke University Faculty of Computer Science
Data and Knowledge Engineering working group

Korinna Bade, Lars Schütz: partiMAN - der Partizipationsmanager zur kollaborativen Entscheidungsfindung : Schlussbericht im Rahmen des Programms FHprofUnt - Forschung an Fachhochschulen mit Unternehmen, veröffentlicht über die TIB(https://www.tib.eu/de/suchen/id/TIBKAT%3A1034133179/partiMAN-der-Partizipationsmanager-zur-kollaborativen/), 2018
L. Schütz, K. Bade, S. Raabe, M. Pietsch, A. Nürnberger and A. Richter, "Intelligent analysis of participation data in the project partiMAN", in Technologische Trends im Spannungsfeld von Beteiligung - Entscheidung - Planung, Aachen, Shaker Verlag GmbH, 2017, pp. 19-28.
L. Schütz, S. Raabe, K. Bade and M. Pietsch, "Using Visual Analytics for Decision Making", in JoDLA - Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture (all courses taught in English), Berlin/Offenbach, Herbert Wichmann Verlag, VDE Verlag GmbH, 2017, pp. 94-101.
D. Helbig, M. Pietsch, L. Schütz, K. Bade, A. Richter and A. Nürnberger, "Online Beteiligung in Entscheidungs- und Planungsprozessen - Anforderungen aus der Praxis", in AGIT - Journal für Angewandte Geoinformatik, Berlin/Offenbach, Herbert Wichmann Verlag, VDE VERLAG GMBH, 2016, pp. 508-517.
L. Schütz, D. Helbig, K. Bade and M. Pietsch, "Interaction with Interconnected Data in Participatory Processes", in REAL CORP - SMART ME UP! How to become and how to stay a Smart City, and does this improve quality of life? Proceedings of 21st International Conference on Urban Planning, Regional Development and Information Society, Vienna, 2016, pp. 401-410.
L. Schütz, D. Helbig, K. Bade, M. Pietsch, A. Richter and A. Nürnberger, "Projekt partiMAN: Neue Ansätze zur aktiven Partizipation in Planungsverfahren", in Beteiligen - Kommunizieren - Partizipieren, Aachen, Shaker Verlag GmbH, 2015, pp. 72-88.

On 7.9.2017 we are organizing the expert forum "Technological trends in the field of tension between participation - decision - planning" in Köthen. Further information can be found on the workshop page.
We are present at AGIT 2016 with a presentation on the publication Online participation in decision-making and planning processes - practical requirements (08.07.2016)
At REAL CORP 2016, we will be presenting the paper for the publicationInteraction with Interconnected Data in Participatory Processes (23.06.2016)
The workshop on 17.09.2015 in the Bernburg Monastery was a complete success and showed interesting ways and new ideas. We would like to thank all participants for the lively discussions and the exchange of experiences.
We are organizing a workshop on the topic of online participation on 17.09.2015. Further information can be found on our workshop page.
On 04.06.2015, the partiMAN project will present itself at the German-speaking expert forum DIGITAL PLANNING and DESIGN as part of the international DLA Conference 2015 - Digital Landscape Architecture (DIA) (all courses taught in English).
On 18.02.2015 the partiMAN project will present itself at the 7th Geofachtag at the University of Halle.

In order to eliminate the previous deficits in participation and communication in planning procedures, the project aims to develop a prototype for a new type of participation platform in which all participants can work together interactively in the planning process. Using currently available technical and professional standards, interoperable, platform-independent communication is to be ensured. The information relevant to the project will be provided using OGC standards (WMS, WFS) or object-oriented exchange formats (e.g. XPlanung). If corresponding technical or professional norms or standards are lacking, suitable solutions must be developed in accordance with nationwide standardization initiatives. Data protection and IT security must be ensured through appropriate rights concepts. Functions that enable active participation within the planning and decision-making process that go beyond the existing marking and textual comment functions must be developed and made available on a web-based basis. The focus here is on improving the integration of citizen participation.

The collaborative system to be developed will enable early dialog between all stakeholders. The possibility of reacting to comments and objections from third parties during the process should be examined and technical options for their implementation should be created. In this way, a rich and networked information structure is already created during the planning phase, which supplements the original planning documents and goes beyond the previous practice of public participation. The visualization of and interaction with such information networks is a current field of research. In the project, corresponding methods are being investigated and developed, through which cross-references can be established not only with each other but also with the original planning documents.

In particular, the aim is to achieve truly collaborative planning and simplify the processing of objections and suggestions. Since a large number of objections are to be expected, especially in the case of major projects, which previously had to be evaluated and processed manually in a workload-intensive manner, intelligent text analysis procedures are to be used in the project to provide suitable support for the processor, e.g. by summarizing identical or similar comments. The information network created in the collaborative system provides additional information on the relationship between individual objections and is incorporated into the process. In combination with suitable visualizations and corresponding interaction mechanisms, this results in semi-automatic support for the evaluation process, which can significantly reduce the processing time. Methods from the field of visual analytics, in which interactive visualization on the one hand and data analysis methods (data mining) on the other are combined, are particularly suitable for this purpose. Depending on the type of data (text data, geodata, temporal data, metadata, hierarchies, graphs/networks, etc.), different visualization and analysis methods are useful. In the subsequent step, the visualizations can then also be used for communicating the planning results back to the citizen.

The prototype to be developed is designed as a web-based server application. This enables use via a web browser so that no software needs to be installed by the user. An administration component enables access for the various stakeholders and user groups by supporting the complete moderation of the process, data protection and security as well as the documentation of the procedure. It is also to be expected that users will increasingly want to access the system in a mobile context. For example, information can be stored in the system directly via smartphone or tablet during an on-site inspection. When designing the interface, care must therefore be taken to ensure that not only large PC monitors but also the small displays of mobile devices are supported. It should also be examined to what extent the additional possibilities of mobile devices (e.g. taking photos via the camera or evaluating sensors such as GPS data) can be used directly by the system, e.g. to make the submission of objections easier and clearer.