The UN-HABITAT Sustainable Cities Programme targets on the improvement of living conditions of urban dwellers in developing countries by introducing a bottom-up planning approach. To improve the flow of information among the different stakeholders involved and to enable the local community to participate in urban planning, some Sustainable Cities Programme partner cities set up a Geographic Information System-based Environmental Management Information System (EMIS). Therefore the identification of Participatory Geographic Information System methods is essential. As one example the information system of the Kenyan city of Nakuru - as part of the Local Urban Observatory (LUO) project - is used to identify elements that can be included into the EMIS to strengthen its participatory character. The Strengths Weaknesses Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) analysis shows that - even if strengths in the internal project setup (as software modules, staff, technical equipment) dominate - negative external factors (for example, lack of free public software access points, low level of public awareness of the software existence, corruption and mismanagement in the local administration) can seriously harm the successful development of this project." More in the English summary of a Master’s Thesis written by Maike Christiansen for the Humboldt-University in Berlin on the topic "Integration of Participatory GIS methods in UN-HABITAT’s Urban Environmental Management Information System (EMIS) - the example of Nakuru (Kenya)". Download the full version in German... |
Participatory Geographic Information Systems - Summary