The role of Volunteered Geographic Information in participatory planning:Examples from Denmark and Finland

Due to developments in pervasive computing and the diffusion of digital media technologies, the amount of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is rising rapidly. This paper investi- gates the potential of applying VGI to a participatory planning context. What kind of VGI was considered useful in the planning process and what were the strengths and weaknesses of the type of data collected? The paper looks at the methods and contents associated with VGI before looking at the implementation side of VGI. This is done by highlighting two case stu- dies. One which was carried out in a Danish context, employing volunteered GPS tracking to capture everyday uses of the urban environment. The second case study was carried out in Finland, employing SoftGIS as a tool to identify and quantify place values