Abstract

Using Mental Maps to Quantify Public Opinion for Planning Purposes
Track: Urban and Regional Planning
Authors: Gary Christopherson, Jodi Perin, Patrick Barabe, Peter Johnson, Barbara Morehouse, Diane Austin

Public opinion is vital for planning purposes, but incorporating opinions in the decision making process is difficult. This research uses mental maps to capture public opinion and ArcGIS to turn opinion into cumulative opinion surfaces (COS). The COS provide ratio scale data that can be incorporated in a wide variety of quantitative planning models. For this paper, examples from a wildfire model in the southwestern USA and an urban conservation project in North Africa are provided.