Quantitative qualitative data collection

Sammanfattning: While urban areas are predicted to expand due to population growth, new approaches towards smart solutions in urban infrastructure and transportation are on the rise. With access to new technology, data has been given much attention from municipalities and decision makers. This thesis is interested in how the public sector will utilize the untapped potential of data collection, and what effects that might have on physical planning, congestion, pollution, dialog and accessibility. By discussing the level of participation of data collection and GIS, this thesis aim is to discuss what added value data collection might have in urban planning, what complications might occur and what the perspective of PPGIS could add to the method. The body of research consists out of an introduction to why data collection is becoming an important method in planning, and why dialog needs to be complemented with other methods. A more theoretical approach to planning and the public-private partnership that has emerged in post-industrial cities is also presented. Theory and background is complemented with qualitative interviews with both public and private actors in order to get some practical insight of project using data collection, and new methods emerging due to technical progress. This thesis has shown that there are several areas where detailed data collection with geographical components could add information to the process of physical planning. A few areas identified by practitioners are short term management of transport systems, long term planning, and evaluation. This thesis also concludes that dialog could benefit from being complemented by data collection. The growing relationship between private and public actors, and the private actors increasing influence in planning is also discussed as a potential problem.