Hamburg’s citizens can find out centrally where, when and on which topics citizen participation processes have been carried out with DIPAS, which processes are currently open for participation and when local dates are coming up. The digital DIPAS navigator provides orientation and offers a simple overview of digital participation in Hamburg. It is the starting point for all citizens, making public participation visible and inviting people to get involved.
The citizen service can be accessed via a browser, on a PC or on mobile devices. There is no need for an app or registration, so it is possible to obtain information about current participation opportunities and past processes in Hamburg in one central location.Citizens and experts interested in participation processes can thus obtain a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of all public participation activities in Hamburg. DIPAS is used in participation processes whose topics and content can be easily accessed via maps and visualizations and which have a clear spatial reference. These include urban development planning, green planning, traffic planning or master plan procedures. The system uses the variety of public geodata and thus facilitates an informed discussion between experts and local people.
DIPAS combines Hamburg’s online participation tool with digital planning tables for use at public events to create an integrated digital system for public participation. With DIPAS, citizens can call up digital maps, aerial images, plans, 3D models and geodata from home, on the move or at public events and provide precisely localized feedback on planning projects. DIPAS was developed by the Department of Urban Development and Housing (BSW/Stadtwerkstatt) in cooperation with the State Office for Geoinformation and Surveying (LGV) and the City Science Lab at HafenCity University (HCU).
The software is open source and was made available as “public code” in February 2021 at www.dipas.org and on BitBucket for other cities, institutions and research facilities for reuse and further development.Since 2016, citizen participation processes in Hamburg have been supported digitally with the DIPAS online participation tool. The feedback and ideas of citizens on planning projects have already been collected in over 90 processes. As part of the “Connected Urban Twins” (CUT) project, the low-barrier UX/UI design development of the DIPAS navigator was implemented. This new DIPAS component will also be made available to other cities and municipalities as open source software and part of DIPAS.
