Tacit Knowledge Use in Spatial Planning via ICT: A Study into Digital Collection and Integration Potential

Abstract

With the start of the Environmental Planning Act trajectory in the Netherlands in 2019 new forms of public participation will be needed to provide for effective public engagement in an earlier stage of spatial planning. Locational and experiential knowledge owned by the public greatly contributes to improving the living environment. This knowledge is sometimes also referred to as tacit knowledge. Information and communication technologies have potential to collect tacit knowledge and integrate it with professional knowledge. Developments such as Web 2.0, PPGIS, SoftGIS, and Serious Gaming prove to be essential for this mainly deriving from their abilities to visualize complex information understandable by laypersons but also to process data input by citizens representing their contributory knowledge. Nevertheless, contemporary academic work concerning this topic is limited. This master thesis has attempted to create new knowledge towards a better understanding of the abilities of ICT-tools and methods that can facilitate the collection of tacit knowledge and its integration with professional knowledge. Tacit knowledge collection via ICT-tools is possible but integrating it with professional knowledge remains somewhat unclear. Therefore, more research is necessary to continue creating knowledge of how full integration can be facilitated.