Visual Simulation as a Tool for Planning Education - Computer Aided Participation Support

Contemporary computer techniques offer many new opportunities to engage citizens into the planning process. There are new possibilities of interaction, introducing an observer into the “game”. The research project presented in the paper assumes the use of a visual 3D language which consists of a series of schematic types of buildings. They form a language which is easy to understand both by professionals and by laymen. Understanding is the very first step towards getting convinced by the ideas presented. The next step is interaction - the useris action induces the response of the system. The solution proposed by the user meets an evaluation from the part of the system which evokes the useris interest - in the case presented here the evaluation introduces the simulation of future state of the site. The problem posed is to find out the best way to convince people that some places are less or more suitable for settlement, depending on the media present there, distance from the urban areas and the environment protection. The attempt to create a tool which could be helpful in an educational process is described in the paper. The idea is to prepare a form of a master plan record which uses the visual 3D language and may be accessed via World Wide Web pages. The paper formulates the assessments for the software described above and examines the possibility to create an application. The trial to prepare a web based service using the flash and shockwave technology is presented