Techniques and Measures for the Evaluation of a Participatory GIS: An Interaction Coding System for Collaborative Water Resource Decision Making
Kevin Ramsey, Timothy L. Nyerges, and Piotr Jankowski
Paper presented at 2nd
Annual Public Participation GIS Conference, July 20-22, 2003, at
ABSTRACT
The increasing involvement of stakeholders and use of scientific data in water
resource management has created a need for participatory GIS (PGIS) technologies
capable of supporting collaborative spatial decision-making. Our understanding
of the influences such technologies have on decision making processes and
outcomes is limited by the shortage of empirical studies of their use. In
September 2002, we conducted a field experiment in the Boise River Basin in
southwestern Idaho to address this gap in understanding. The Idaho Department of
Water Resources (IDWR), faced with a water management decision involving public
and private stakeholders, collaborated with our research team to conduct two
public participation workshops. Stakeholders participating in the workshops
included representatives of local and state government, water and irrigation
districts, municipal water providers, and members of the public that use ground
water. At both workshops stakeholders were asked to create and select a water
resource management plan for the Boise River Basin as a recommendation to the
IDWR. To assist their efforts we created a custom PGIS called WaterGroup
featuring maps, satellite imagery, charts, scenario building and tools, dynamic
visualizations of scenario impacts, and voting tools. We captured the
stakeholder interaction and PGIS use using both video cameras and computer
keystroke logging. A social-behavioral science technique called
"interaction coding" was then used to compile data about decision
process from the video and log files. We will describe the effectiveness of
these data gathering techniques in the context of evaluating PGIS used to
support collaborative spatial decision problems. This paper will be of value to
researchers interested in methodology for conducting and evaluating empirical
studies of PGIS use.
< Back to collaborative spatial decision makings study home page