## 5 Examples of Crowdsourcing Applications in Spatial Planning
The information is derived from the users of the infrastructure and exploited by rescue services in order for the latter to be informed of the obstacles and seek alternative routes [22]. Users send the information through their devices, which are provided with the Google Maps' API tool. Another approach of public participation and \"crowdsourced\" knowledge acquisition for planning purposes via the web is the \"playful public participation\" approach. The goal of such an approach focuses on the adoption of the \"playful public participation\" concept and the potential use of games and \"play\" during the public participatory planning process. Games are used as a stimulating computer-based tool that can potentially involve citizens in serious public participatory processes [16]. Some examples of such kinds of projects are presented below [16]:  
* \"SimCity\": This is a city management game, delivering a true multi-city scale, where users can control a region. The goal of the game is to create \"ideal cities\". It was originally designed by [PERSON] and published by Maxis (division of Electronic Arts). It was developed in California, and its characteristics are mainly based on California's image and development in the 20 th century [23]. The user can \"build\" a city, define several zones (industrial, residential, _etc._), make proposals about the investments, the taxes, the control of flooding, _etc._
* \"PlasticCity\": This is a \"multiplayer urban planning game\". The goal of the game is for the players to reshape the Bradford (U.K.) city center. This project started in 2004. It encapsulates the architectural ideas of [PERSON]. It was conceived of by the author, [PERSON], built by [PERSON] and [PERSON] (programming) and [PERSON] and [PERSON] (modeling) [24]. * \"Urban Plans\": This is a video game similar to \"SimCity\". The urban environment (buildings, trees, universities, _etc._) can be located by the user everywhere in the city. The user, who has a pre-defined budget for shaping the city, tries to manage the urban environment. It is available online through the site \"Maniac World\". * \"City Creator\": The goal of this game is to create a city. It is similar to \"Urban Plans\", but the elements of the city are not labeled as in \"Urban Plans\"; instead, their function should be determined by the user's perception of the icon. \"City Creator\" is a joint project by [PERSON] and [PERSON]. [PERSON] came up with the original idea and design, and [PERSON] helped the idea along and made it all come to operation by programming it [25]. Computer game environments have been experimentally utilized in an effort to investigate their possible contribution to public participation planning exercises. Such kinds of games can be created for any city and be exploited for \"playful public participation\" purposes in order to gain feedback from the crowd. \"Marmo Platano-Melandro\" is another case where a PPGIS application was created in the framework of the \"Marmo Platano-Melandro Territorial Integrated Projects\", which took place from 2006-2009, in the area of Marmo Platano-Melandro (Italy). The purpose of these projects was the development of synergies and scale economies in a multi-scalar perspective of governance favoring groups of municipalities [26]. The projects were supported by the Laboratory of Urban and Territorial Systems (University of Basilicata), the European Union and the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Rural Economy of the Basilicata prefecture. In this application, a website (WEBSITE), containing information on the project and the area, was created, while a web-GIS application (WEBGIS), offering access to geographic information, was implemented on an open-source platform. These tools were combined with a typical blog (BLOG), which provides interaction capabilities in order to acquire feedback from citizens, concerning planning actions, while simultaneously giving them the chance to participate in the different stages of several actions [26].