Place-based tools for participatory urban planning: the potentialities of Soft GIS

Since several decades public participation and participatory urban planning are considered important issues to be taken into account in public decision-making. At the same time, research methods have developed new tools aimed to support and stimulate citizens’ participation in planning activity. Within this wide repertoire, the technological development allowed the creation of several participatory GIS practices, able to integrate geo-referenced spatial information together with citizens’ knowledge and voices. Participatory GIS tools allow an investigation on residents’ insight of their living environment that can be utilized along the planning process. As a tool of place-based experience, participatory GIS are nowadays object of updates. The paper presents the potentialities of SoftGIS, investigating on its further utilization in the welfare field of studies, pointing out – at the same time – some questions about their capacity to affect public decision- making and place-based research approaches.