People-powered urban planning in Norrköping
Posted by khashayar in 
In a new innovative service on the web the City of Norrköping in Sweden empowers its citizens to plan the future city centre. The project was initiated by the city planning office of Norrköping to communicate plans for the new city centre as well as engage the citizens to contribute with ideas.
In the service, based on Agency9 CityPlanner, the user easily navigates in an interactive 3D view of Norrköping and explores the city. Information points provide details in text, images and 3D models. The user can comment and read others’ comments directly in the 3D environment. Unlike traditional physical models in closed exhibition halls the web services is available to the citizen all 24 hours of a day. This is a new channel to attract people of the younger generations and people too busy to visit exhibition meetings and hearing meetings. This is a new way of clearly communicating projects and to build positive support for proposed plans. The service was released by Norrköping Municipality in connection with a local real estate event on April 13-15.
“We are overwhelmed by the positive response from citizens and media. Already after a few days there were many qualified comments from citizens proving its value. The attractive near reality presentation of the city in 3D combined with the simplicity in accessing information brings clarity and makes it easy to create interest from citizens. We will continuously monitor the inputs as contribution in our development of the city.” says Dag Johansson City Architect of Norrköping.
See “Vision Industrilandskap” live: http://www.3dkartor.norrkoping.se/cityplanner/project/index.do?uid=AC9oODaV
The service in Norrköping is based on Agency9s CityPlanner, a web based service for collaboration and communication in urban development and infrastructure projects. Agency CityPlanner is provided as a cloud service and allow projects to:
- View virtual model of existing terrain and 3D city
- Create scenes of project models and vector data
- Share project information in project teams
- Publish externally as project information
- Consult stakeholders in formal planning process
- Engage external users to provide new ideas and suggestions
“Norrköping is adding a new dimension to public communication in urban development. Agency9 CityPlanner is a platform for collaboration and dialogue as well as establishing positive support for projects. It also helps in discovering complaints and problems at early stage, saving valuable time and efforts for the city. Norrköpings implementation is a good example of how today’s technology can be used to substantially improve public participation in the city planning. The intuitive user interface and features of this service been created with input from the city planning office of Norrköping is using the Agency9 CityPlanner being generally available this month.”says Khashayar Farmanbar CEO of Agency9.
Suggested CAD model seamlessly viewed in the 3D city model
Current view of the Norrköping.
Citizen suggestions and comments
About Agency9
Agency9 is the leading supplier of software of web-based 3D visualization of geographic information and maps for collaboration and communication in the infrastructure-, construction- and public sector. Agency9’s product portfolio includes 3DMaps, CityPlanner and other web based 3D geospatial solutions. The company was established 2003 and have several international cities as customers such as Gothenburg, Salzburg, Oslo and Berlin. www.agency9.com
Press contact: Khashayar Farmanbar, CEO Phone: +46 70 953 2168, farmanbar@agency9.com
Award winning city planning
Geospatial World Forum Amsterdam 26 April 2012 – City of Gothenburg and its partner the Swedish software company Agency9 receives the Geospatial World Innovation and Excellence Award in Urban Planning at the opening of the international reputable conference “Geospatial World Forum 2012” in Amsterdam. The award is received for the innovative use of webbased 3D visualisation in the communication of development projects and the dialogue with its citizens. The award winning project is based on Agency9’s web solution CityPlanner.
Efficient collaboration and communication is fundamental in building and managing sustainable cities. Leveraging the benefits of clarity of 3D illustrations, internet based visualization tools provided as a cloud service, allow easy distribution of information and collaborative work in projects teams internally within city organisations but also external architects, experts, builders, politicians and other stakeholders involved in the project.
“Gothenburg City is honoured to receive this award. It acknowledges our work of finding new methods to support the urban planning process and to improve the dialogue with our citizens. Substantial savings in costs can be achieved through more efficient communication avoiding planning mistakes and late complaints due to misunderstandings. Using web based 3D and intuitive user interfaces for navigation and dialogue brings a new dimension to public participation.“, said Lars Freden at City of Gothenburg.
Agency9 CityPlanner is provided as a cloud service and power projects to
- view virtual model of existing terrain and 3D city
- create scenes of modified terrain, uploaded project models and vector data,
- Share project information in project teams and publish externally as project information
- Consult stakeholders and engage external users to provide new feed-back
“Agency9 is pleased to receive this award with Gothenburg. It encourages us in the continued projects with Gothenburg and in our dedication to provide innovative 3D web solutions to support city organisations in their core processes.“ said Khashayar Farmanbar CEO Agency9
About Agency9
Agency9 is the leading supplier of software of web-based 3D visualization of geographic information and maps for collaboration and communication in the infrastructure-, construction- and public sector. Agency9’s product portfolio includes 3DMaps, CityPlanner and other web based 3D Geographical Information Solutions. The company was established 2003 and have several international cities as customers such as Gothenburg, Oslo and Berlin. www.agency9.com
Press contact: Khashayar Farmanbar, CEO Phone: +46 70 953 2168, farmanbar@agency9.com
