Participation in a large Arctic city – the possibilities of PPGIS for improving interaction

ABSTRACT Like innumerable areas worldwide, northern and Arctic areas are experiencing rapid urbanization. The land is often publicly owned in the main, and there are many interests focusing on the same areas. Different activities lead to specific challenges in land use management in regard to public participation. There are guidelines and legal norms for participation in Finland from the municipality to the ministry level, but the style and rate of participation vary a lot from city to city. In this article the potential of public participatory geographic information systems (PPGIS) is examined in the Arctic city, Rovaniemi. The research questions are: How has participation in land use planning and decision-making been implemented in the context of sparsely populated Arctic city the past and present times? How do the interviewees see the potential of the use of PPGIS? Attitudes towards PPGIS were positive, but the implementation of all types of participation data, such as PPGIS data, was seen as vague and weak. Challenges of the participation were associated with poor communication, insufficient information, and lack of trust. Nature values and local opinions were considered to be at risk of being overshadowed by economic values.