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ENHANCING ONLINE PUBLIC NOTICES USING GIS TO FACILITATE PUBLIC 
PARTICIPATION IN MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENTS 
Sli^'Y Ru Z. Chang* 
* Dept. of Civil Engineering, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria St., Toronto, ON, Canada M5B 2K3 - (snli, 
czheng)@ryerson.ca 
1 + se) = 5 . es 
' Intergraph Canada, Mississauga, ON, Canada - yiru@ingr.com 
KEY WORDS: GIS, Internet/Web, Decision Support, Environment, Design, Development 
ABSTRACT: 
By-laws of many municipalities and local governments require certain level of public participation in their decision-making 
processes for municipal planning and development activities. One of the common practices in Canada is to hold public meetings 
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during which the proposed developments are explained and discussed, and public opinions are collected. The problems associated 
with existing practices are twofold: insufficient access to information required for public input and lack of effective, innovative 
communication channels other than public meetings. Having municipal environmental assessment (EA) process as the application 
context, this paper presents our effort on developing methodology and software tools, using advanced information technology 
including GIS, that facilitate information access, understanding of EA study, and proactive participation in public meetings and, 
eventually, in overall municipal class EA process. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
By-laws of many municipalities and local governments require 
certain level of public participation in their decision-making 
processes for municipal planning and development activities. 
One of the common practices in Canada is to hold public 
meetings, also named public information centres (PIC), during 
which the proposed developments are explained and discussed, 
and public opinions are collected. Based on a survey [Lawndes 
et al, 2001b], public mectings are still one of the mostly 
identified forms of public participation. 
The problems associated with existing practices are twofold: 
insufficient prior access to information required for public 
input and lack of effective, innovative communication channels 
other than attending public mectings. As stated in Meredith 
[2000]. better access to information, better connection to 
decision-making process, and better tools for getting input into 
decision-making process is important questions to answer for 
efficient public participation. 
Recent advances of technology such as Internet and geographic 
information systems (GIS) have changed many aspects of the 
old traditional public participation approach [Allen, 2003; Ban. 
2003; Ventura, 2003], and promise to provide new information 
tools to improve participation process. While a rich collection 
of publications in this area may be found from proceedings of 
annual public participation GIS conferences, more relevant 
examples include the electronic town meetings (ETM) using 
modern computing technology such as laptops, wireless voting 
pads, and groupware systems [AmericaSpeaks, 2004], web- 
based GIS applications used to enhance public participation 
[Evans, et al., 1999], and Web Mapper that allows collection of 
public input using both HTML forms and maps (comments 
geo-referenced) [Meredith, 2000]. However, few systems are 
Capable of interactive manipulation of information [Evans. 
Corresponding author. 
269 
1999], “what-if” analysis, and participant’s input, together with 
access to information sufficient to make informed decisions. 
Social implications of public participation in decision-making 
processes have also been extensively discussed in many 
publications [Lowndes, et al., 2001a and 2001b]. Among these 
issues, equality in accessing information, using technologies to 
manage and access information, and influencing decision- 
making course, in the scope of our research, are some of the 
most important considerations. Another issue is to identify 
general technology impediments and provide corresponding 
strategies to eliminate or reduce them [Allen, 2003; Ventura, 
2003]. While the long-lasting projects may provide more 
suitable testing platform for the public participation, many 
municipal development projects last for a short period and 
require a quick turnaround in making decisions. This also 
imposes some social and economic adopting 
technology-oriented solutions. The consideration must be given 
based on two project dimensions: scale and time. 
issues in 
The research reported here concerns a GIS-based online 
approach to facilitate public participation in collaborative 
decision-making in various. municipal developments, by 
combining public notices and  out-of-meeting support 
mechanisms. The focus of this paper is on the development of 
methodology and software tools that facilitate. information 
access, understanding of environmental assessment (EA) study, 
and proactive participation in public meetings and, eventually, 
in overall municipal class EA process. 
We have examined existing practice of conducting public 
consultation in selected municipalities in Great Toronto Area in 
Canada. with respect to EA studies. Spatial requirements have 
been defined and a framework of a GIS-based Internet public 
notice system has been developed. It is based on this 
framework that the initial prototype has been developed using 
the existing Internet GlS/mapping technologies.