Island areas: creating a web application for enhacing public participation in spatial planning

Περίληψη

Spatial planning should be environmentally sustainable, economically fair and reliable and socially desirable. However, individual choices and social disputes influence significantly decision making in spatial planning. Therefore, spatial planning should be a flexible to be modified depending on each areas needs, requirements and characteristics. It is required to establish a new model of governance to design spatial planning policies according to the needs and beliefs of local society and also eliminating the long-prevailing liabilities the Greek spatial planning institutional framework presents. This study proposes an effective and user-friendly web-application able to incorporate local communities priorities in designing the operational programme of a Greek island Municipality. The tool proposed improves the reliability and the effectiveness of spatial planning policies and minimizes the conflicts between all social groups, contributing in this way towards Greek islands sustainable development. In order to achieve these objectives were used many state-of-the art techniques, such as a map based commenting tool, online questionnaires and Geographical Information System software.