The 4th webinar of Baltic Urban Lab (August 23rd, 2018 ) focused on the possibilities that new digital tools can bring in participatory urban planning. Baltic Urban Lab cities Tallinn and Norrköping have both developed and tested new tools to encourage different stakeholders, especially citizens to give their feedback and learn more about current planning issues. Tallinn has developed AvaLinn Mobile App and Norrköping 3D visualisation tool Earth Autopsy. The tools have been tested in the planning of the two brownfield sites - The Skoone Bastion in Tallinn & the Inner Harbour area in Norrköping. Norrköping and Tallinn shared their practical experinces on the development and use of tools and give tips to other cities that are interested to develop similar tools.
Programme
(Please note that the times are in CET)
12:00 Webinar platform is opened
12:30 Opening of the Webinar (Johanna Aaltonen, University of Turku)
12:35-13:05 Citizen involvement tool AvaLinn for Android and iOS devices (Ivari Rannama and Ave Kargaja, City of Tallinn)
13:05-13:40 3D Visualisation tool Earth Autopsy (Erik Telldén, City of Norrköping)
13:40-14:00 Discussion and questions
Presentations
Citizen involvement tool AvaLinn for Android and iOS devices
Citizen involvement tool AvaLinn for Android and Apple devices was launched in January 2018 in Tallinn. AvaLinn mobile app was first used for the urban space development idea gathering, urban planners were curious to receive the feedback and comments to the suggested urban space vision. AvaLinn is easy to use, functions include writing a location based comment with a photo or just expressing support (like/dislike button).
Co-creation in urban planning requires lot of communication and explaining, most of the people do not have knowledge in city planning. In order to let people know about the involvement app AvaLinn and the idea gathering, local team organised a communication campaign. Before the start of the idea gathering we made a teaser campaign in the pilot site to let local residents know that something will happen soon in the area and the public space is about to change.
Infact, Google Analytics connected to AvaLinn application clearly shows that after communication activities users tend to be more active in the app. Downloads of the app increased both for Android and Apple devices. In order to reach large number of stakeholders it is crucial to cover as much communication channels as possible.
After the test period, urban planners were positively surprised by number and the content of the comments. After the first idea gathering with the brand new mobile app, a number of weaknesses were discovered, app developer Applaud OÜ started to fix those, app functionalities were improved.
3D Visualisation Tool Earth Autopsy
How can we explain what we can not see? How can complex environmental issues be put in a personal context based on the history of the city?
With the help of newly developed visualization technology, the municipality of Norrköping works in an educational and informative way in telling the story of how yesterday's actions are impacting today and how we can fight against a more sustainable future.
Our cities are getting denser and growing, making development on old land necessary. In many cases, there are places known as brownfeilds where pollutants are found in the soil and lead to costly remediation measures before people can live and work there. In Norrköping, the inner harbor is now evolving from port area and gasworkssite that gave light to the city's many industries to become an attractive residential and residential area for all Norrköpingsbor.
The land where the old gasworks belongs to the most polluted in the country, the work affects many people and the remediation measures are estimated to cost up to 450 million kronor.
In Baltic Urban Lab and with the newly developed Earth Autopsy tool, Norrköpings Municipality unites drones, georadar and drill samples with technologies commonly used in medical visualization and exhibition environments at the world's major science centers, into an exciting interactive application accessible to the public at science center visualization center C.
The purpose is for people and schoolchildren to know the city's history and understand why the soil is contaminated, how the pollutants are distributed in the soil and how the soil will be cleaned from contamination but also feel secure that the remediation is carried out correctly and that Inner Harbor becomes an attractive place to live and live on.
