Mapping the world has always been an effort of combining measurement and intuition, artistry with exactitude. As Geographic Information Systems have been conceived and built, it is the precision of the measurement tools, the speed of the CPU, the clock cycles and pixel sizes that have monitored their success. Now that many large GIS’ are in place and in maturity, it is worth applying a different metric: how well do these systems perform for the people and institutions that created them? How does a system that was built for engineers and planners respond to the demands of a larger, public use? Do these systems reflect the real world of the people who inhabit the territory that has been mapped?
GIS and public involvement professionals at Metro are exploring the potential for creating spatial representations of traditionally intangible information, such as what citizens value about their homes and communities, what they hope to protect or pass on to future generations and what makes our region special and unique. By capturing this information, Metro could begin to use this "value-based" information to help shape future policy initiatives as well as to illustrate for citizens the value systems that they share. Over the course of an intensive public outreach and long-range planning process known as the 2040 Framework, Metro has utilized GIS technology to enable citizens in the decision making process. These applications illustrate the potential of GIS technology as platform for public involvement, and as a channel for accessing information about land-use policy decisions.
Part I: GIS in Public Involvement Applications
Metro is the directly elected regional government that serves more than 1.3 million residents in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties and the 24 cities in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. According to a voter-approved 1992 home-rule charter, Metro’s top priority is managing the urban growth that the region is experiencing. The Growth Management Services Department is responsible for working with citizens and local governments to set a clear course for the region’s future. Since 1991, Growth Management staff have implemented an intensive public involvement and rigorous planning effort for the next 50 years, called the 2040 Framework. The 2040 Framework is a series of policies and guidelines that will help the region’s communities deal with the challenges of growth and enhance livability. The planning decisions within the 2040 Framework were based on equal parts technical land use and transportation analysis on the one hand, and the expressed values and preferences of the citizens of the region on the other.
The Regional Land Information System (RLIS), an internationally acclaimed GIS program, was created by Metro's Data Resource Center (DRC). The center is part of Metro's Growth Management Services Department. RLIS is a parcel based GIS, with data derived from Assessment and Taxation records from the three counties in Metro as its base. Additional layers have been built in reference the parcel base including street centerlines, digital ortho-photography, vacant lands, topography, soils, natural hazards etc. This is a mature GIS environment, which has been in development since 1989.
Metro data and map coverages are seamless across the region, eliminating problems that arise from data gaps and overlaps at city and county boundaries. This property alone contributes greatly to the power of GIS to bring diverse groups together on issues; the debate focuses on the issues, not on the data or methodology used to arrive at a particular position.
RLIS Lite – A CD-ROM product that was created by the Data Resource Center for distribution of GIS data in a convenient format for desktop mapping. Simplified data themes, non-normalized data tables and "human-readable" data elements – streams are labeled as "Streams" instead of "RIV" with an attribute of less than 4 in a related table, etc. This single product has opened up the distribution of GIS to a much greater audience than has been possible. Created as a commercial product, the structure and format of the GIS data in this product have become the common language for data exchange and data usage in the region. A GIS distributed in this format made the following public involvement programs at Metro possible.
"URSA-matic" – Metro is required by Oregon land use laws to designate areas adjacent to the metropolitan urban growth boundary as urban reserves. Urban reserves are areas that are determined as the most appropriate places for urban expansion when the region falls short of a 20-year supply of developable land inside the existing UGB. Metro spent 16 months examining possible areas for urban reserve designation called Urban Reserve Study Areas (URSAs) before selecting 18,600 acres as urban reserves in March 1997. As part of the analysis, Metro employed a multi-criteria weighting scheme linked to a GIS. This tool dubbed "URSA-matic", allowed comparative analysis of the URSAs based on state-required factors for selection of urban reserves. The factors included: orderly and economic provision for public facilities and services; maximum efficiency of land uses within and on the fringe of the existing urban area; environmental, energy, economic and social consequences; retention of agricultural land; and compatibility of the proposed urban uses with nearby agricultural activities.
"URSA-matic" allowed planners, elected officials and citizens to compare the suitability of the URSAs by weighting the different factors in different ways. "URSA-matic" could be loaded onto a laptop computer and projected through a LCD projector so that groups of officials and citizens could test various scenarios "on the fly" in the course of meetings or hearings. The specificity of the application allowed citizens to learn whether individual taxlots were "in" or "out" of the URSAs and whether they were likely to be included or not in the final selection of urban reserves. Through "URSA-matic", citizens could understand and be part of the decision making process, breaking out of the traditional "black box" technical environment that involved planners, lawyers and elected officials. Over 750 citizens attending seven different workshops were given the opportunity to see "URSA-matic" and ask for specific information available through the application.
Stream and Floodplain Protection Workshops – Metro recently completed a public outreach effort tied to new regional land-use policies on protection of areas along rivers, streams, floodplains and wetlands to protect water quality and reduce future risk of flood damage (in accordance with Oregon state land use goals). Metro created new data layers for RLIS representing protected areas where the new policies would be applied throughout the region. The public outreach effort included workshops conducted around the Portland metropolitan area to inform citizens about the proposed policies and how the policies would affect communities and specific properties in these protection zones. Metro staff loaded the desktop version of RLIS, called RLIS-Lite, on to three laptop computers and set up "one-on-one" stations at the workshops. Over 250 citizens attended the workshops and could sit down with a planner to look at specific sites and examine the proposed overlay zones. They were also given a hard copy map to take home with them. Additionally, both planners and citizens could fill out forms to request changes, with suitable documentation, to the maps if there were errors or omissions in the Metro data. Again, the decision making process was open to any interested citizen, not just technical and elected officials.
MetroMap – is a web-based view of the RLIS database served to the public via the Internet. The application allows access to multiple layers of geographic information with some limited spatial analysis tools. Anyone with an Internet connection and a browser can have access to this application. The major ‘analysis’ function provided is a point in polygon tool, giving users the ability to determine what geography a location is ‘in’. Boundary information can be generated in a list form and includes the following major categories:
http://www.metro-region.org/metromap.
Metropolitan Area Disaster GIS - Since 1993, the federal government has invested in a Portland-area partnership of local, regional and state government agencies to identify earthquake hazard and the seismic risk posed by potential earthquakes to buildings and other structures. The distribution of the Metro Area Disaster Geographic Information System (MAD GIS) CD-ROM to risk managers and emergency managers ensures that natural hazard and risk data collected over the past four years will be used for risk assessment and disaster management planning to benefit communities and businesses in the region.
MAD GIS is a vision of how technology can be used to organize information to support decisions related to risk assessment, disaster preparedness, mitigation of hazards and risks, response to emergencies and recovery from disaster. MAD GIS: CD-ROM can highlight and analyze essential elements of information related to hazard, risk and vulnerability. At its heart, the software exploits the spatial analysis capability of geographic information system technology to paint a picture illustrating the vulnerability of people, structures and natural resources to damages that could be caused by an earthquake or other natural disaster.
MAD GIS: CD-ROM may be used by planners and managers prior to a disaster to assess risk and create hazard mitigation, response, recovery and preparedness strategies. The technology displayed in this software could be built upon in the future to provide a networked information system to support disaster response and recovery management in the region.
For people who are not highly skilled in GIS programming, MAD GIS: CD-ROM offers easy access to data related to geologic hazards and risk. Natural hazards included in this initial version are limited to earthquake and flood hazards. The risk information includes data related to the existing built environment such as buildings, population, employment, natural resources, vital systems (such as major electric utility facilities) and key facilities (such as police and fire stations). Production of additional hazard information and updated versions will be developed as funding becomes available.
GIS technology has followed a similar path as other information-based systems over the last few decades: faster, cheaper hardware, combined with larger, more complex software programs, has allowed for a greater diversity of applications available to users. Desktop mapping tools have moved cartography away from the priesthood of highly specialized technicians, to become a vocabulary that is available to the person making the message.
The most significant technology trend to effect the development of a PPGIS is, of course, the rapid adaptation and growth of the World Wide Web (WWW). Internet technology and infrastructure have been in place for years, but the metaphor of the browser has captured popular attention, and can be used as a solid base for grow on for the foreseeable technology future.
Web-based form input dialog screens mimic the traditional survey form utilized by public involvement programs. New technologies, such as JAVA, ActiveX Controls, and ESRI’s MapObjects, allow the addition of interactive spatial information to be gathered in the context of the traditional form. Now a user can use the "point and click" simplicity of web based forms to do a "show and tell" about a particular location in space.
Through its previous experience with PPGIS programs and investments in database and Internet technology, Metro is now in a position to turn the dream into reality. Metro’s RLIS Lite has hundreds of data layers that empower users to become informed about the region. A simplified form has become available on the Internet. E-commerce functions and other interactive applications have been added recently. Metro’s Growth Management staff have successfully supported citizen use of GIS information at public events and will serve as a technical resource for broader availability of these tools in the future.
Beyond being a powerful educational tool, Metro’s "Mapmaker’s Dream" program will create new "value" data layers based on citizen feedback that can help Metro, its partners and citizens understand what people care about and what shared beliefs we have as neighborhoods, communities and even as an entire region. The "value" data will also help citizens and policy makers to better understand the unique characteristics and differences in beliefs that make up the Portland region.
By making the connection between GIS mapping capability and eliciting, sorting and reporting citizen input to key values and tradeoffs questions, Metro will have a new way to help regional officials and local partners identify citizens’ values and define generally vague concepts like "livability".
This fundamentally positive approach to citizen input, asking "what do you value" rather than "what is wrong" recalls the "glass is half-full" approach to capacity developed by John Kretzmann and John McKnight of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute. Their program starts by identifying community strengths and addresses problems with programs that leverage those strengths inside the community. This approach to community development engages the members of the community and encourages ownership of programs by the people who benefit from them. "Mapmaker’s Dream" has the potential to generate similar discussions and provide valuable information to capacity-building efforts throughout the region.
The program will utilize a web-based interface to RLIS data that will take public through a short series of questions on-line - or in a form that can be quickly transferred to on-line outlets - such as newspaper ad or mailer with short version of the questions.
By basing the program on an Internet platform, we can automatically capture feedback, sort for various groups/jurisdiction boundaries, and provide instant feedback on individual, neighborhood, city, county and regional summaries. Further, this approach allows us establish a schedule for more comprehensive reports of feedback to neighborhoods, cities, county and regional officials.
The program should leverage the cultural and social opportunities that the regional audience will experience in order to maximize participation. The most exciting opportunity will be the changing of the millennium, which will reach maximum public awareness in 1999. A call to the public asking for value-based information at this unique point in human history in order to both shape future plans for the 21st century and to create a permanent record of what is important to citizens at this "turning point" of history should encourage extensive participation.
An intensive, multi-faceted promotional campaign would be necessary to "get the word out" on the program. "Mapmaker’s Dream" also offers an opportunity to establish relationships with key outreach partners/sponsors such as local high-tech companies, other public agencies or media sources to help promote the program and increase accessibility.
The types of questions we could ask through the program:
(All of these questions could be handled through an interactive, map-based interface plus pull down follow-ups to expedite the experience for the user.)
The "Mapmaker’s Dream" is a major evolutionary advance in Metro’s public involvement and GIS capabilities. If we are successful, we will have an ongoing tool for citizen-level use of powerful GIS information as well as the means for direct, meaningful dialogue with the citizens of the Portland region about any issue or concern.
As Fra Mauro, the central character in A Mapmaker’s Dream, finally achieved his goal of mapping the essence of the world, Metro hopes to map the intangible, the values and dreams of the region’s citizens. Though Fra Mauro’s "mappa mundi" was lost, we hope to share this vital information with those who participate and the community leaders who represent them.