Public Participation Geographic Information Systems: A Literature Review and Framework

Public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) pertains to the use of geographic information sys-tems (GIS) to broaden public involvement in policymaking as well as to the value of GIS to promote the goals of nongovernmental organizations, grassroots groups, and community-based organizations. The article first traces the social history of PPGIS. It then argues that PPGIS has been socially constructed by a broad set of actors in research across disciplines and in practice across sectors. This produced and reproduced concept is then expli-cated through four major themes found across the breadth of the PPGIS literature: place and people, technology and data, process, and outcome and evaluation. The…