
Inclusive engagement and AI in strategic spatial planning

- Company: The Future Fox
- Client: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
- Year: 2020 - 2022
- Region: England
- Product: PlaceBuilder
- Community engagement
- Artificial intelligence (AI) and software solutions
Introduction
The consultation was on the area’s Spatial Framework was a tremendous opportunity for a democratic, digital planning system, marking a return to strategic spatial planning with the community represented from the start.
The engagement was run as a pilot in 2020 and subsequently rolled out in 2021.
Challenges
Government and strategic planning consultations are typically complicated and lengthy, meaning only the most interested in planning will engage. People from younger age groups (U35s) and ethnic minorities are typically underrepresented in planning decisions. Local plan consultations typically don’t take a statistical approach to geographic or demographic sampling, and as a result at a strategic or regional scale of work, there is a lack of robust data to inform planning decisions.
Solutions
- Creating highly visual engagement with quick polls targeted at younger audiences
- Creating a more formal site for the main consultation to appeal to all audiences, that retained high engagement rates through careful theme and questionnaire design
- The consultations covered a wide range of spatial topics in an accessible way, and allowed for quick or lengthier interactions with the consultation questions and content, depending on the user’s level of interest.
- Designing accompanying targeted, high-conversion social media campaigns with careful budget management.
- Consulting with key stakeholders across government departments to agree the data-driven approach.
- Establishing a sampling strategy to ensure geographic and demographic statistical representation
- Using AI to analyse the >15k written comments collected during the consultation
Results
The large volume of data collected did not take long to analyse and summarise. 66,994 answers were instantly summarised and mapped. AI analysis was used to create a spatial heatmap of community sentiment, by specific, relevant themes, providing the GIS-compatible data layer.
This first-of-its-kind digital consultation created a unique community opinion data set for spatial planning. The consultations demonstrated how accessible, meaningful and data-rich digital engagement can be, and its benefits to strategic digital planning.
"The platform was highly accessible, and the quality of the overall service was fantastic”
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