A model of conflict resolution in public participation GIS for land-use planning

On the basis of the principle of sustainable development, land-use planning often requires a compromise between economic development and environmental conservation with social justice advocated. Given that values, perceptions, and ideas vary among stakeholders, land-use planning often involves a variety of conflicts with advocating public participation. In this paper we focus on extending the decision-support capabilities of public participation GIS (PPGIS) to facilitate conflict resolution. In the proposed model, conflicts are designated to be investigated and resolved from two levels, namely the value level and the specifics level. From the value level, a consensus-building process is proposed to help participants promote mutual understanding and achieve group agreement. At the specifics level, participants are asked to search for compromise space through discussions over particular concerns. The ultimate goal of the model is to help participants to work out the most acceptable land-use plan. Moreover, a PPGIS prototype with the conflict-resolution model was designed and implemented in the context of Lantau Island, Hong Kong. The study could contribute to PPGIS research and land-use planning by developing the methodology of conflict resolution. The challenges that we encountered and some future directions are also covered in the paper.