Emerging visualization techniques to support public participation in urban mass transit planning context

Abstract

With the post-modern turn in planning theory, the public's input is now required in a wider variety of areas. Nevertheless, the discourse about planning has remained too technically oriented, depriving the general public from a real understanding of the issues at stake. The development of multi-media, web-based tools could provide the public with common concepts and a common vocabulary to discuss and elaborate a shared vision on planning-related issues. This thesis develops such a tool to educate the public about urban transportation auditory impacts. By combining movies, sounds and simulations, we offer multiple representations of sound in an interactive and interpretative way which could augment the social knowledge about those issues. Furthermore, the same framework could easily be expanded to encompass other technical elements. This tool prefigures one of the multiple ways by which information technologies will impact the planning practice. This thesis will also suggest some of the possible evolutions in the planner's role within this new technology-enhanced environment.