Resumen de Pre-decisional engagement, decision-making outcomes and web-PPGIS usability

Yunliang Meng, Jacek Malczewski

• This paper explores the relationships among the usability of a Web-based Public Participatory GIS (Web-PPGIS), the degree of pre-decisional engagement and decision outcomes in the context of a real-world participatory planning project. ArgooMap is used to support local residents in an online procedure for determining the “optimal” location of a new parkade in Canmore, Alberta. UsaProxy is employed to automatically collect the datasets on the system usability and the degree of predecisional engagement. This research shows that the degree of pre-decisional engagement depends significantly on the system usability measured in terms of the system efficiency, effectiveness and the user satisfaction with using the system. In addition, the degree of pre-decisional engagement has a significant effect on the decision outcomes (i.e., the rankings of candidate sites). These findings provide clues for advancing Web-PPGIS.