Using Citizen-Provided Information to Build Purposeful Knowledge for Planning: Principles, Requirements, and Three Examples

We present three tools as examples of how information and contributions collected from citizens through online services may be meaningfully employed in evaluation and decision-support tools for planning. The whole idea of using “citizens as sensors” has seen remarkable advancements with the advent of the Web 2.0 and mobile technologies. Yet many tools lack explicit, transparent and publicly accessible evaluation models useful for guiding decisions, for prioritising issues, and for assigning resources by the municipal government. We argue that such evaluation models are necessary for the principles of publicity, accountability and equity to be observed by the public authority. The three tools we present here are attempts, in three different fields, to show how this lack may be overcome. The tools (one for urban maintenance, one for evaluation of walkability and one for energy management) are intended to enhance public authority’s capabilities to use “social energies”, to make their actions more efficient, fair and accountable, giving citizen control and oversight of the allocation of resource.