Journal of Earth Science and Engineering 7 (2017) 121-126 doi: 10.17265/2159-581X/2017.03.001 D DAVID PUBLISHING

Explorations of Public Participation Approach to the Framing of Resilient Urbanism

Wei-Kuang Liu1, Li-Wei Liu2, Yi-Shiang Shiu2, Yang-Ting Shen1, Feng-Cheng Lin3 and Hua-Hsuan Hsieh1 1. Architecture, Feng Chia University, Taiwan 2. Urban Planning and Spatial Information, Feng Chia University, Taiwan 3. GIS Research Center, Feng Chia University, Taiwan

Abstract: Under the framework of developing resilient and livable cities, this study was aimed at engaging local communities to achieve the goal of public participation. Given the prevalence of smart mobile devices, an interactive app called “Citizen Probe” was designed to guide users to participate in building resilient and livable urban spaces by enabling users to report the condition of their living environment. The app collects feedback from users regarding the perceived condition of the urban environment, and this information is used to further develop an open online index system. The index system serves as a guide for the public to actively transform their city into a resilient and livable urban environment. The app was designed for the reporting of flood incidents with the objective of resilient disaster prevention, which can be achieved by enabling users to identify disaster conditions in order to develop a database for basic disaster information. The database can be used in the prevention and mitigation of disasters and to provide a foundation for developing indices for assessing the resilience and livability of urban areas. Three communities in Taichung, Taiwan, participated in the study. Residents of these communities were requested to use the app and identify local environmental conditions to obtain spatial data according to four stages in disaster response: assessment, readiness, response, and recovery. A volunteered geographic information database was developed to display maps for providing users with current reports of predisaster risk assessment, disaster response capacity, real-time disaster conditions, and overall disaster recovery. In addition, the database can be used as a useful tool for researchers to conduct GIS analyses and initiate related discussions. The interactive appraises public awareness on disaster prevention and makes disaster prevention a daily norm. Further discussion between the public and experts will be initiated to assist in policy management pertaining to the ongoing development of cities in addition to improving disaster prevention and response measures.

Key words: Resilience, disaster prevention, geographic information, public participation.

1. Introduction attention in the field of spatial planning. Discourse on urban resilience has included not only environmental This study examined a system that was developed to and ecological resource management but also the facilitate public participation in building urban structural effects on urban space governance, resilience through the use of a digital platform and particularly in the context of disaster prevention [1]. In basic environmental data constructed from feedback the field of spatial planning, the concept of urban from students and community residents through resilience is mainly expressed in the institutional and specially arranged educational courses. The collected implementation aspects of urban policies, particularly environmental information can be used as a basis for in city-wise adaptive strategies for addressing climate further public participation and discussion. Recently, change. The present study used information technology the concept of urban resilience has received increasing to facilitate public participation in resilient disaster prevention by enabling urban communities to Corresponding author: Wei-Kuang Liu, assistant professor, research fields: participatory planning, community collectively make proactive urban development empowerment, everyday urbanism, urban regeneration, decisions and create urban livability and resilience. environmental planning.

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Manuel Castells indicated that information share or comment on information, which indirectly technology has altered the material basis of society as affects how other users interpret information; this was well as the processes through which new spatial forms unachievable in the traditional mode of governmental and meanings are created [2]. Such technologies are information transmission or media user experience. By particularly effective in realizing the concept of VGI using such an online community system, the present (volunteered geographic information), which can study asserted that the public could use their own facilitate public participation in developing social smart mobile devices to provide environmental organizations [3]. Given the prevalence of smart information. Through the use of mapping technologies, mobile devices, the present study was aimed at using an the feedback can be imported into a GIS (geographic interactive mobile app to enable public participation in information system) analytical framework for further providing local environmental information to build analysis of regional problems or public participation. resilient and livable urban environments. Public 2. Resilient Disaster Prevention feedback was collected to construct a database of information on the perceived condition of urban cities, In recent years, the concept of resilience has and an open index system was developed to guide the received considerable attention in addressing natural public in actively transforming their urban disasters in urban areas. This concept implies that a city environment into a more livable environment. With the must be able to restore its living functions and order as trend of public participation in urban development and soon as possible following a disaster. Disaster the development of networked societies, identifying prevention requires improving forecast and monitoring and solving problems pertaining to urban living technologies, managing all basic environmental data, environments is no longer the sole responsibility of detecting anomalies to minimize loss of life and governments and scholars in democratic societies. property, and issuing warnings in advance. Therefore, Therefore, encouraging public participation in issues applying information communication and Internet pertaining to the public sphere and providing technologies to developing effective solutions has appropriate communication platforms have become become a global trend in disaster prevention and rescue, critical tasks that must be faced in this new era. particularly in moving away from the traditional Through the use of mobile terminals (e.g., smart top-down approach to disaster prevention governance. mobile devices), participatory sensing can be realized, Thus, this study focused on discussing the use of the which would change the nature of traditional Internet in assisting various communities in communication modes, in which communication is participating in disaster prevention through a generally limited to members within the same bottom-up approach. community, enable the public to provide immediate Foster [5] proposed a framework comprising four feedback on the condition of their neighborhood, stages for assessing a city’s resilience in disaster thereby assisting in collecting data for resilient city prevention: assessment, readiness, response, and indices though a bottom-up approach. recovery. A resilient city must be able to assess and Castells noted this contemporary social trend 17 prepare for potential disasters, respond to disasters years ago by stressing that, after the emergence of appropriately, and immediately restore city-operation networked societies with the advent of the information mechanisms to the normal level. The continuous cycle age, social governance would transit from a traditional of these four stages enables a city to respond properly vertical hierarchy into various forms of information to all types of potential disaster. flows and sharing [4]. The Internet enables users to To develop resilience, a city must change not only its

Explorations of Public Participation Approach to the Framing of Resilient Urbanism 123 disaster prevention and management strategies but also The integration of GPSs (global positioning systems) the residents’ mindset and behavior. Thus, this study and the Internet with mobile devices enables users to proposed the mobile app Citizen Probe to incorporate have easy access to spatial information and to share the collective feedback of online communities into a information with the public. Thus, convenient access to city’s disaster management decision-making processes posting and receiving information in addition to and to gather basic environmental data for analyzing advancements in mobile device technologies has given disaster prevention capability. The data are gradually rise to VGI apps. Previously, information on maps, accumulated by repeating the three procedures of traffic accidents, and disaster reporting has been public participation: identification (of disaster provided by official sources, and information releases prevention locations), coconstruction (establishment of can be delayed and unlikely to contain local disaster prevention locations), and mutual assistance information. However, VGI transforms information (shelter capacity). typically released in a top-down manner, under authoritative structures, or by professionals, into 3. Public Participation in Collecting and information that can be continually accumulated and Managing Environment Information disseminated by the public through various methods, French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari [6] hence reducing the distinction between information explained the impact of living experience on urban providers and users [11] and rendering VGI as a structures and emphasized that an orderly urban system potential resource for collecting official geographic is constructed and organized through a dynamic information. When employing participatory-sensing bottom-up social relationship. This social power from technology, citizens effectively become sensors for the lower levels forms the foundation of urban their city by marking the geographic locations of structures, whereas a top-down planning order, incidents and providing relevant information [11]. For although rational, cannot fully govern the voice and instance, a platform must allow the dynamic energy of the social collective. British geographer registration of geographic information to increase user Massey considered this as a process of place making willingness to participate and to maximize the [7]. The form of a space cannot govern local cultures platform’s effectiveness. If the public can participate in and the sense of a place is represented through the disaster reporting by marking the location of a disaster subjectivity and experience of human life [7-9]. Public via GPS and autonomously providing information of participation serves as a mechanism for coproducing a predisaster risk assessment, disaster damage, and sense of place. Sociologist Habermas [10] indicated postdisaster recovery, the collected information can be that the public sphere must involve public participation used for GIS analysis and enhance current to shape society and politics, and he emphasized the developments in disaster prevention. importance of social communication platforms because The present study applied the assessment framework communication ensures the preservation of modern for urban resilience proposed by Foster to the values (e.g., social rationality, consensus, liberation, identification of flood incidents and developed a and solidarity), which can be used as a foundation for mobile app called Citizen Probe. The app enables users generating critical perspectives and ensuring social to participate in the following stages of disaster reconstruction. Therefore, identifying the ideal method management and prevention: (1) Assessment: Photos for building an appropriate decision-making platform can be taken and uploaded to report the surface water through public participation is a major objective of the permeability of a living area (Fig. 1) and imported in an present study. online platform to determine the overall distribution of

124 Explorations of Public Participation Approach to the Framing of Resilient Urbanism surface water permeability and thereby measure its of the actual flood height (Fig. 2) and enable them to capacity for coping with flood incidents. (2) Readiness: understand overall flood conditions, thereby reducing Potential disaster risks can be reported in advance to water damage and increasing response efficiency. (4) confirm whether an area is ready and well prepared for Recovery: Flood water level decrease in flood areas disaster response (e.g., ensuring drain cover blockages can also be reported (Fig. 3) to calculate the total that may lead to poor drainage do not occur). (3) recovery time required for individual areas and to Response: Flood conditions can be immediately identify environmental probblems that require further reported by users to inform others or rescue personnel improvement actions.

Fig. 1 Reporting on surface water permeability on Citizen Probe.

Fig. 2 Reporting flood height on Citizen Probe.

Fig. 3 Reporting flood recovery on Citizen Probe.

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To inform the public about the distribution, 4. Community Participation conditions, preparation, and response to flood incidents According to the following three criteria, three in their immediate area, this study constructed an open communities were selected from Taichung City to cloud database for users to connect via Facebook to guide local residents in identifying and reporting local upload photos taken with their mobile devices. The use flood-related information to develop local disaster of GPS enables the uploaded files to be integrated with resilience. In the selection of participants and research geographic information on the flood location. The regions, the following were considered: (1) past history identified content is then accumulated to form a VGI database, which is visualized in the form of a map (see of severe flood incidents, (2) convenience for Fig. 4), providing immediate public access to current observing flood levels, and (3) fully developed and reporting on predisaster risk assessments, disaster comprehensive community operation. The selected response capacity, real-time disaster conditions, and communities were Wukuang (Wuri District) and overall disaster recovery. In addition, the VGI database Chungho (Nantun District). All locations are close to can serve as a tool for researchers conducting GIS rivers and have a history of severe flooding due to analyses and discussing disaster prevention and heavy rainfall, and this continues to be a problem management. To display information, the online despite several attempts at river rectification. The platform has a user-friendly interface that allows both community heads agreed to participate in the present the public and experts to discuss policies regarding study on a long-term basis. The present stage involves disaster prevention developments in urban areas. The education courses designed to enroll students and present study employed community volunteers to community residents as volunteers to participate in facilitate public participation and provided regular experiments to test the Citizen Probe app (see Fig. 4). training on disaster prevention and mobile device However, since the commencement of this study usage. (August 2016), no severe flood has occurred in the

Fig. 4 Spatial distribution of safe locations in the campus of Feng Chia University as reported by Citizen Probe users.

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selected communities; consequently, no data were and may serve as reference for future developments in collected to evaluate flood severity in the areas. resilient urbanism. Cooperation with these communities will be ongoing Acknowledgements with regular disaster prevention drills to test Citizen Probe to ensure its effectiveness during disaster events. This work is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan, under grant No. 5. Conclusion and Future Research MOST105-2627-M-035-006 and 105-2221-E-035-012. Directions This manuscript was translated into English by At present, this study is mainly focused on Wallace Academic Editing. developing the Citizen Probe app and establishing a References system for community participation. However, the following limitations were observed during the test [1] Dudley, M. 2010. “Resilience.” In Green Cities: An A to Z Guide, edited by N. Cohen. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage drills and require further improvement: (1) the app Publications. cannot be operated with the mobile device in offline [2] Castells, M. 1989a. “Social Movements and the mode; (2) GPS accuracy is poor; and (3) lack of diverse Informational City.” Hitotsubashi Journal of Social Studies 21: 197-206. presentation modes for displaying user-required [3] Castells, M. 1989b. The Informational City: Information information on the GIS maps. By continuously Technology, Economic Restructuring, and the Urban improving and adjusting the proposed app and system, Regional Process. Oxford; Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell. this study suggests that a functional identification and [4] Castells, M. 2000. “The Rise of the Network Society.” In The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. 2nd interaction platform can be developed to achieve the ed. Vol. 1. Oxford; Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell. goals of resilient disaster prevention. Moreover, [5] Foster, K. A. 2006. “A Case Study Approach to Citizen Probe was applied only in the identification of Understanding Reginal Resilience.” Working Paper prepared for the Building Resilient Regions Network and flood incidents. It could also be used for other disasters presented at the Annual Conference of the Association of or its user base could be expanded to determine its Collegiate Schools of Planning. capacity for developing urban resilience. [6] Deleuze, G., and Guattari, F. 1988. A Thousand Plateaus: In addition to the ongoing improvement of the app Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Athlone Press. [7] Massey, D. 1997. “A Global Sense of Place.” In Reading and system, this study suggests the following topics for Human Geography: The Poetics and Politics of Inquiry, future research: (1) integrating Internet-of-things edited by T. J. Barnes and D. Gregory. London: Arnold. technologies to strengthen the current disaster [8] Pred, A. R. 1984. “Place as Historically Contingent prevention and monitoring network; (2) establishing a Process: Structuration and the Time-Geography of Becoming Places.” Annals of the Association of American sharing and cooperation system between public and Geographers 74 (2): 279-97. private sectors; and (3) applying big data to disaster [9] Tuan, Y.-F. 1977. Space and Place: The Perspective of damage analysis. These efforts would improve the Experience. London: Edward Arnold. effectiveness of the current approach and transform the [10] Habermas, J. 1989. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. present feedback data from individual users into big [11] Goodchild, M. 2007. “Citizens as Sensors: The World of data, which would have considerable analytical value Volunteered Geography.” Geo Journal 69 (4): 211-21.