| ::. | est | rus | .:: |  |
Home | |
Contact | |
Documents | |
Environment | |
Partners | |
Links |
|
e-System for Real Time Democratic Aim The aim of the project "eCommunity" is to
apply innovative web-based software solutions, which will
promote the concept of e-democracy by enabling exchange of
opinions and information. That will help raising public awareness.
Download the project description. The developped eCommunity tool is an internet based city planning tool with the following objectives: • Promote sustainable and democratic urban planning by using
opportunities offered by IT;
Ideology Much like the common skill of interpreting realism through the television, the initial idea of our project is the creation of a 3D computer model of an existing environment in a real-time modeling software package what is easily understandable for everyone. The citizens, who are usually turned off by the static and seemingly “finished” quality of an artist rendering or physical model, will more likely feel informed and empowered at first sight of a non-static, changeable visualization that stunningly shows the proposed changes to their neighborhood. Citizens often do not feel compelled to participate simply because they don’t fully understand how a certain planning proposal will affect their lives in direct ways, don’t have enough time to do the research, and simply don’t feel equipped to make decisions. The idea of having to learn a lot to interpret a design or understand the complexities of a planning proposal is what often discourages citizens from participating in the decision-making process. Upon the realization that one will have access to such an intuitive technique to make informed decisions, the barriers between institution and the citizen will begin to break through. Participation will become less feared task, and the invitation becomes more open for citizens to vote for a proposal or to contact the local planning representative or even to participate in a public workshop. Thus, the communication of the technology’s availability is vital. When tool is used, citizens are no longer limited to being a passive audience that simply sees a proposed design in all its beauty, but they become active participants. During the planning process, citizens and community leaders alike will be able to work interactively in front of a computer. By simple movements of the mouse, they will be able to walk up to their own front porch, looking at the proposed shopping mall alternatives across the street from virtually any angle. The changes from the discussion can be viewed interactively again and design issues can be revisited or introduced by the participants. Participating can ultimately fuel ideas, bringing them to life and fostering clearer communication for consensus building. Description The eCommunity project goal is to promote sustainable and democratic urban planning by using opportunities offered by modern information technologies and the Internet. The project will apply innovative web-based software solutions to make available information on the town spatial planning and development to the town citizens as well as to interested organizations and persons internationally in order to promote involvement of public into making decisions on the issues of local development and to increase investments into the economy of the Narva municipality. It is hoped that the project will demonstrate use of the system as a tool for urban planning; if this project experience is positive, the same tool could be used also in urban planning in other towns and regions across Europe. The eCommunity project promotes more transparency in decision-making in Narva town and therefore offers a window of opportunity to the Narva municipality to develop a more effective dialogue with the town inhabitants and better understanding among the public of decisions adopted by the municipality. Creation of the eCommunity web-based information system implies development of the "virtual reality" where the town spatial plans drawn by specialists will have their own 3D spaces, realistic models of the planned area, which can be virtually walked through and where citizens will have possibilities to make additions and corrections to the plans and transfer it automatically to a new 3D model representing recent changes. The system is planned to be able to accept user requests in a fuzzy human form and convert it to a specification of what is to be displayed and how. This innovative IT tool will allow to synthesizes concrete decisions from statements made by citizens, giving the decision-making process a new democratic identity in real time. The system available through the regular Internet system will be developed tailor made to needs of specific stakeholder groups and will include components such as an “investor web” or a “tourist web” sites. The system will include a wide range of thematic information sub-systems, such as a city master plan, a thematic plan of bicycle traffic, a public transport agenda; a thematic park of old town; etc. Process Main tasks of the partners: • Management - Hendrikson & Ko Financing The project is financed 47% from EU LIFE Environment programme and 53% from partners |
