Thu Feb 26 - Online Civic Engagement Tools for Plan-Making - Humphrey School

[Steven Clift]

This event tomorrow is open to the public ... Humphrey Center, U of M West Bank.

Online Civic Engagement Tools for Plan-Making

Nader Afzalan, PhD (March 2015)

University of Colorado at Denver

Candidate for Assistant Professor of Community and Civic Engagement


Thursday, February 26, 2015
11:15-12:30pm
180 HHH


Abstract
Local governments and planning organizations are increasingly using online civic engagement tools for engaging citizens in environmental and land-use plan-making processes. However, our understanding of whether and how planners find these tools useful in these processes is still limited. This study explores the usability of online civic engagement tools in plan-making processes through web-based survey and in-depth phone interview of planners. Planners find online civic engagement technologies useful to explore novel ideas, test scenarios, validate their thoughts and decisions, and avoid possible conflicts among the team of experts. For the tools to be effective, planning organizations require either collaborating with other institutions or equipping their internal organizational capacities. The use of online civic engagement tools by planners leaves us with several questions related to inclusive planning processes.

Biography
Afzalan expects to receive his PhD in Urban Design and Planning from the University of Colorado at Denver in March 2015. He holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning and BA in Urban Planning from the University of Tehran. His research focuses on the opportunities and challenges of urban planning organizations to employ new civic engagement methods for creating environmental sustainability plans and negotiating planning scenarios. It particularly explores the role of civic technologies and citizen generated data in empowering local governments to incorporate environmental sustainability and social justice strategies into planning processes. In pursuing this research in his dissertation, Afzalan examined 50 sustainability plans at various levels of geographic scale ranging from large urban areas to rural areas in North America. He has published three articles in peer reviewed academic journals and currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the Technology Division of the American Planning Association. Afzalan currently serves as a lecturer in the Urban and Regional Planning Department of San Jose State University.