Participatory Urban planning – introducing and testing a 2D/3D visualization and AHP framework

Abstract

Participation in urban planning is important to increase accountability, transparency, and legitimacy of decisions. In this context, it is essential to establish the needs and priorities of stakeholders potentially affected by decisions. However, poor participation practices undermine the public’s trust in decision-making processes and reduce the public’s willingness to participate. The study aims to contribute to urban planning theory by discussing what participatory planning means. Furthermore, a systematic, objective-led, and negotiation- based decision support framework is proposed, based on a 2D/3D visualization and analytic hierarchy process for use in participatory urban planning. The framework aims to increase the legitimacy of decisions taken without ignoring the political dimension of planning. It was tested in a regeneration case study in Liverpool (UK). Testing shows that the framework enables technical issues to be addressed in a way that the public can understand. In the process, a systematic evaluation of participants’ priorities is possible and negotiated participation is supported. The framework could support transferring stakeholders’ priorities into plan decisions with online meetings and surveys, for example, when the possibility of physical meetings is restricted.