Digital tools in public participation

Abstract

Public participation is an activity that is conducted regularly in every planning process in Norway, as demanded by the planning and building act. Even though it is conducted in every planning process, there are cases in the media regularly where the public feel like their opinions have not been heard by the planning authorities.

This thesis aims to explore how digital tools can improve public participation, with a focus on solving some of the main challenges it faces today. Subsequent questions were made to provide a foundation from which the research question could be answered from. The sub-questions were answered by creating a theoretical background, as well as conducting two case studies and four semi-structured interviews. The case studies were centred around two planning processes in Rogaland County, and the interviews were conducted with informants that have experience with public participation. The findings from these three chapters resulted in the thesis concluding that there are in total five areas where digital tools can improve public participation.