Stakeholders engagement in noise action planning mediated by OGITO: An Open Geo-Spatial Interactive tool

Noise action planning (NAP) requires collaboration among stakeholders, given the harmful health effects of noise and the subjectivity of how individuals perceive noise. Maptables can be used to mediate in such a collaborative spatial planning process. However, open software applications specifically designed for those devices are still limited or mismatched with user needs. This study presents the co-design and development process of an Open Geo-Spatial Interactive Tool (OGITO-noise) intended for maptables users. We explore to what extent such a tool can be usable and useful in supporting collaborative NAP in practice. Our methods combine agile software development and human-centered design (HCD) in a hybrid fashion, namely remote co-design meetings and face-to-face testing, to develop an open application that our intended users found useful. Those methods were utilized during a pandemic but can also be used when dealing with geographic or resource limitations.