Public Participation Using 3D Web-Based City Models: Opportunities for E-Participation in Kisumu, Kenya

Public participation is significant for the success of any urban planning project. However, most members of the general public are not planning professionals and may not understand the technical details of a 2D paper-based plan, which might hamper their participation. One way to expand the participation of citizens is to present plans in well-designed, user-friendly and interactive platforms that allow participation regardless of the technical skills of the participants. This paper investigates the impacts of the combined use of 3D visualization and e-participation on public participation in Kisumu, Kenya. A 3D city model, created with CityEngine2016, was exported into a web-based geoportal and used as a Planning Support System in two stakeholder workshops in order to evaluate its usability. In order to assess the workshops 300 questionnaires were given out to planning practitioners and interview were done with key informants. Five indicators were developed for evaluating the usability of the 3D model while the usability of e-participation was evaluated using communication, collaboration and learning as indicators. Results showed that effectiveness and efficiency varied within different professional groups while the questionnaires showed strong preference for e-participation methods, especially Short Message Servicess/Unstructured Supplementary Service Data and emails. The study concludes that the use of 3D visualization and e-participation has the potential to improve the quality and quantity of public participation and recommends further research on the subject.