Activity-based process construction for participatory geo-analysis

Due to its advantages in participation and collaboration, participatory geo-analysis has been used for solving different types of geographical issues. Participatory geo-analysis is usually a complicated process consisting of various tasks that may involve different multidisciplinary participants. Previous studies have focused primarily on how to improve participation in specific individual tasks, especially idea discussion and decision-making, but they have ignored collaboration throughout the entire process. During a complete participatory geo-analysis effort, the various participants should concentrate on their familiar work and fully exploit their talents to perform work collaboratively. Therefore, we propose an activity-based process construction method to assist different participants in understanding the geo-analysis process and in concentrating on their familiar work. Eight core activities are established for the geo-analysis process: (1) context definition and resource collection, (2) data processing, (3) data analysis, (4) data visualization, (5) geo-analysis model construction, (6) model effectiveness evaluation, (7) geographical simulation, and (8) decision making. By using a visualization-based method, different activities can be linked together to represent the entire analytical process. Moreover, each activity is designed via a specialized web-based workspace in which online tools and resources are accessed to assist the participants with their geo-analysis practices. A prototype system was developed based on the proposed method, and a case study on a participatory risk assessment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was demonstrated using this system. The result suggests that the proposed method can promote collaboration among participants with different backgrounds, and verifies its feasibility and suitability.

Automated summary

Participatory geo-analysis involves complex processes and multiple tasks, attracting interdisciplinary participants. The proposed activity-based process construction method, with specially designed activities and online workspaces, helps participants understand and focus on familiar tasks. Research findings suggest that this method can promote collaboration among participants with different backgrounds.