This article presents results of an empirical study about the use of a group-based geographic information system (GIS), called WaterGroup, developed as a collaborative spatial decision support system. WaterGroup was designed to enable stakeholder groups to participate in the solution of conjunctive water resource administration decision problems being addressed by the Idaho Department of Water Resources in the Boise River Basin of southwestern Idaho. The decision situation, software development, and empirical investigation are described within the context of other research activities/literatures related to group/community/public geographic information systems, helping us sort through the burgeoning terminology of this continually emerging field. We used Enhanced Adaptive Structuration Theory 2 to motivate research questions investigated by way of a field experiment research design. Decision process is characterized in terms of human-computer-human interaction coding. We used a technique called ''interaction coding'' to compile three streams of data from videotapes as a record of interaction in two stakeholder-oriented decision workshops. Coded data are examined using nonparametric, exploratory sequential data analysis. Additionally, we used questionnaires to gather data regarding participant perceptions of WaterGroup and the decision process. The findings of this study indicate that different technology configurations foster a different balance between analytic and deliberative activities within phases of a conjunctive administration decision process. A low-technology, chauffeur-driven configuration in a phase encourages more deliberation, and a medium-technology, participant-driven configuration in a phase encourages more analysis. We discuss the findings and their implications for group-based GIS decision support. This article will be of interest to researchers involved in group-based GIS decision support software design, in empirical studies of stakeholder group-based decision support, and facilitators desiring to gain deeper insight into field settings involving group-based GIS decision support. Key Words: collaborative decision making, decision support system, groupbased GIS, participatory GIS, water resource planning.
This paper examines the increasing use of geographic information systems (GIS) to support the project of ‘collaborative’ planning. Specifically, I explore the ways in which the use of GIS in collaborative planning programs works to counteract and/or reproduce patterns of marginalization always present in local political struggles. Through a review of the literature and an analysis of a case study of the use of GIS in rural water resource management, I argue that the discourse and practices of collaboration can often lead to a problematic depoliticization of GIS. Furthermore, I show how this depoliticization can normalize both uneven power dynamics and the marginalization of alternative and oppositional perspectives. I employ this case study as a backdrop to propose an alternative practice of participatory GIS motivated by Mouffe's notion of ‘agonistic pluralism’. This practice of agonistic participatory GIS is designed to foreground, rather than obscure, the politics of spatial knowledge production by explicitly juxtaposing alternative understandings of space and spatial problems. I conclude by discussing the importance of this work to the critical and participatory GIS research agendas.
Collaborative spatial decision support systems (C-SDSS) have been used to help groups of stakeholders understand data and search for opportunities at resolving local and regional decision problems in various domains including land use, transportation, and water resources. The key issue in designing an effective C-SDSS is the anticipation of user information needs. Knowledge of user information needs can guide system designers in achieving a C-SDSS that fits the decision process. In this paper we present a design approach that is informed by stakeholder concerns, as part of a user needs assessment. The approach is based on the premise that knowing stakeholders' concerns can help anticipate user information needs and consequently lead to a more usable C-SDSS. We demonstrate the approach with the example of a spatio-temporal decision problem involving conjunctive water administration in the Boise River Basin in southwestern Idaho. The spatial dimension of the decision task involves delineating the areas of conjunctive water administration while the temporal dimension involves selecting the year in which a given area will start to be administered. We show how the elicitation of stakeholder concerns leads to functional specification of a collaborative spatio-temporal decision support system.
Recent research about "analytic-deliberative" decision processes shows that meaningful public participation is possible, and decision outcomes are improved. The analytic component provides technical information that ensures broad-based, competent perspectives are treated. The deliberative component provides an opportunity to interactively give voice to a diversity of values, alternatives, and recommendations. Unfortunately, such public participation has been expensive and time consuming, and thus involved small groups. An Internet system that combines geographic information system technology, decision modeling technology, and communications technology into a geospatial portal to support analytic-deliberative processes might be one way to facilitate meaningful participation in large groups, as a way for agencies to more effectively engage a public who wish to participate. The core research question underpinning our work on system design is: What system design considerations for various analytic-deliberative capabilities will foster support of structured and flexible, analyticdeliberative, transportation improvement decision processes? 3
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