## 5 Examples of Crowdsourcing Applications in Spatial Planning
A web map service (WMS) was also developed, through which it is possible to reproduce maps dynamically in JPEG, GIF or PNG format in any GIS software. Many activities had been located on maps with the support of municipality staff, while others were identified by means of Google Earth. They were represented on the map as points, lines and polygons. As for the BLOG, it enriches participation and interaction among citizens and institutions responsible for defining policies. BLOGs' purposes can be summarized in the following points [26]:  
* Active participation of users through comments;* Collection of all instances concerning past and future planning policies;
* Establishment of dialogue between organizations and data users;
* Constant involvement of citizens in public decisions and enrichment of collaboration;
* Transparency and accessibility to the decision making processes;
* Transparency in intervention programming. For the city of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, a GIS-enabled discussion forum (GeoDF) has been implemented, as a means through which the government can gain feedback from the public on several spatially related issues, by exploiting web-mapping and analysis tools. The characteristics of the system are the following [27]:  
* It enables citizens to provide more in-depth feedback to the government, through the use of enhanced, easy-to-use, web-based mapping and analysis tools;
* It allows participants to submit and share feedback, as well as to initiate discussions about their concerns, either by writing text messages or by making sketches and annotations on a GIS map;
* It \"conveys\" a participant's perspective, as the map extent and the map layers that one is viewing are stored by the system and shared among all the participants. The system is a web-based application that introduces the spatial context to an online discussion forum with the support of a web-based GIS and a spatial database. ArcIMS has been selected as the spatial server, and the online discussion forum is based on the open source bulletin board software, phpBB. The graphic tools used are the Javascript sketching tool and several annotation tools. The map layers are file-based, while data from the discussion forum are stored in a MySQL database with spatial extensions [27]. The webpage (user's interface) contains a WebGIS map viewer and a forum menu designed as a tree structure for organizing discussion contributions by issues in reverse chronological order. Depending on the discussing issue, the user can simultaneously choose the suitable graphic representation. With the \"Show areas of hottest discussion\" command, citizens can view at a glance which areas attract the most discussion contributions. With the \"comments tool\", the user can retrieve contributions based on locations by dragging a box over a certain area and selecting which contribution to display on the map. The case studies presented above concern mainly spatial applications related to spatial planning and the management of spatial problems. In such cases, \"e-tools\" support the problem solving process and decision making by facilitating data collection and solution formulation through the exploitation of web technologies and crowdsourcing techniques. Crowdsourcing plays a crucial role in the whole process, as it allows for the broad publication of a spatial problem and the extensive participation of the crowd so that spatial and attribute data is created or a solution to the problem under study is explored. In this context, GIS offers an outstanding contribution, as it supports the management of spatial information and the representation of spatial data on a map background. In addition, the adoption of crowdsourcing techniques in spatial planning is of exceptional importance, as it enhances public participation and also enriches the feedback that can be gained in planning exercises. The combination of crowdsourcing and GIS sets the base for the establishment of more successful and effective planning solutions.