Supporting stakeholders awareness and engagement for local land planning: the Thau territory experience

Abstract

Opening land-planning public policies to new actors and citizens faces indifference or even some suspicion. One of the main challenges for practitioners of participatory approaches is to strengthen citizen awareness and local stakeholders engagement. Through two examples based on a research partnership for the development of the Thau territory, we show how the use of geographical tools (3D physical models and participatory mapping) can help meet these challenges during the diagnosis phase of the land planning process. Despite their apparent simplicity, these tools have demonstrated their potential to achieve the objective: 3D models by bridging the gap between the technical aspects of the planning project and the sensitive experience of ordinary citizens, participatory mapping by promoting and legitimizing local knowledge.