Integrating GIS, CG and the WWW for Facilitating Public Involvement in Urban Landscape Evaluation

Abstract

In spite of the widespread use of the Internet, its potential for facilitating public involvement in urban planning projects has not yet been exploited. In this paper, the possibilities and limitations of integrating GIS, CG and the WWW for facilitating the public involvement in urban landscape evaluation are discussed. It is proposed that off-the-shelf 2D GIS and 3D CAD software can be efficiently used for creating virtual urban spaces representing alternative landscape designs. The problems of synthesizing and publishing these data on the WWW are discussed, and a case study of evaluating the landscape of a public park is used to show the usefulness of the proposed approach.