Analysis of Online Public Participatory Gis Applications with Respect to the Differences between the Us and Europe

Public Participatory Geographical Information Systems (PP GIS) is a field of research that focuses on the use of GIS by the general public and aims at involving citizens in a decision-making processes. PP GIS applications increasingly use the Internet as a platform for communication and dissemination of information. They link community participation and geographic information in a diversity of social and environmental contexts. In this paper we compare twelve online PP GIS applications and evaluate them according to their usability, interactivity and visualisation. A qualitative expert analysis shows that a highly interactive citizen information exchange platform is the exception rather than the rule. After presenting first results of the study we discuss some directions for ongoing and future work including suggestions for PPGIS evaluation by non-expert users.