Public Participation GIS (PPGIS)
Public participation GIS (PPGIS) is a family of practices that bring the spatial knowledge, values, and priorities of ordinary people into geographic information systems, so that community perspectives sit alongside expert and official data in planning and decision-making. Synthesized as a field by Renee Sieber in 2006, it ranges from facilitated workshops where residents mark up paper maps to web mapping platforms where thousands of people drop points marking places they value or fear. Its aim is both technical and political: to enrich spatial analysis with local knowledge and to widen who gets to shape decisions about place.
Read the full method
Sign in with a free account to read this section.
Method map
The neighbourhood of related methods — select a node to explore.
Sources
- Sieber, R. (2006). Public participation geographic information systems: A literature review and framework. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 96(3), 491–507. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8306.2006.00702.x ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Public Participation GIS (Participatory Mapping of Community Spatial Knowledge). ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/urban-studies/public-participation-gis
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
- Accessibility AnalysisHuman Geography↔ compare
- Charrette MethodUrban Studies↔ compare
- Multi-Criteria Site SelectionUrban Studies↔ compare
- Visual Preference SurveyUrban Studies↔ compare