The implication of advances in community mapping through spatial information technologies for urban regeneration projects

This research explores the application of community mapping as a tool for supporting urban regeneration projects and the potential for its growing importance due to advances in spatial information technologies (SIT’s). Despite advances in SIT’s it is unclear how community mapping is evolving to aid both planners and construction professionals in enhancing community engagement and representation. The research explores the perceptions of planning officers engaged in urban regeneration projects to establish current practice and explore the potential and shortcomings for using community mapping and new information technologies. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior planning officers working with urban regeneration projects and these were supplemented by a questionnaire survey eliciting responses from a further eleven officers across Scotland. The results are explored in three parts exploring perceptions of: 1) the current practice during development planning and at the project level; 2) the utilisation and limitations of existing spatial datasets and 3) seven presented elements to survey through community mapping to better aid the representation of communities and explores their potential usability and relevance. The research concludes by proposing the need for a relational database to support the application of these seven elements in a format which can be integrated with existing datasets within SIT’s.