Geospatial technologies for public participation: better decisions for smarter cities?

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

In recent years society has undergone a process of modernization and with it, there has been increased citizen participation in decision-making and public policy development. This is due to, in part, the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) together with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the development of channels of participation. This rapprochement between citizens and institutions through technology, has encouraged the development and evolution of the smart city concept in a broad sense and smart campus, applied to the university context, as test area. The goal of this thesis is study the relation between the three components of a smart city (human, institution, technology) through the introduction of an improvement in the technology component that allows interrelate the human and institutional component in a closer way, and analyze its potential impact on them. To this end, public participation has been enabled at the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) by implementing a Web mapping application that, on the one hand allows users to report campus incidents (illegally parked vehicles, accumulation of garbage, etc.) in a more accessible way to the administrative institution of the campus, and on the other hand allows to this institution to receive the incidents in a structured and organized visually way, useful for decision-making regarding the management of campus resources.