Mahbubur R. Meenar

Building Social Capital in the Digital Age of Civic Engagement

The use of digital technologies to enhance traditional public participation processes and to build a new form of a social capital— digital social capital—is being embraced in a range of planning practices. This article presents a discussion of how the digital age is influencing public participation and its implications for building social capital. The article highlights critical concerns to consider when embracing Internet tools for civic engagement and when evaluating such practices. The authors conclude with a call for scholarly research to assess the constraints and opportunities presented by this emergent trend and comparative studies to traditional modes of public participation.

Suitable Housing Placement: A GIS-Based Approach

The intent of this paper is to operationalize some aspects of local sustainability in a suitable development scenario and to compare its energy-use and environmental impacts to trend development. After a discussion of suburban sprawl, local sustainability, and the current state of the Pennypack Creek Watershed in the Philadelphia metro region, these residential location scenarios are presented. The latter were created using geographic information systems software and are based on projections from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. The impacts of the scenarios on energy use, air emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, water quality, and biological integrity were estimated with very few data, and the effect on the value of generic ecosystem services was assessed. The suitable development scenario was 29% better in terms of energy use and air and greenhouse gas emissions, 2.4% worse on water quality, and 2.6% better with respect to biological integrity. Given its net beneficial results, recommendations for policies to engender suitable development are made, and an outline of an implementation plan is proposed. Thoughts regarding refinements of the present work and the applicability of the methods used here to other watersheds conclude the work.

e-Participation: Comparing Trends in Practice and the Classroom

This article reports an assessment of the growing use of Internet-based public participation methods, e-participation, in planning practice and university-level planning education in the USA. After documenting results from case study reviews of practice and a web-based survey of planning faculty, a comparative analysis reveals that academic programs are incorporating a range of e-participation tools; however, there is a need to increase curricula content to mirror trends in planning practice. The article concludes with recommendations on how to build on the strengths and to address the weaknesses observed in this study to better prepare students for the demands of planning practice.