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An open-source participation tool that combines georeferenced citizen feedback and spatial data to enable transparent, inclusive and data-informed public participation for city development processes - online and on-site.
Urban planners and city administrations across the region faced a set of recurring challenges in public participation. Participation tied to physical events excluded citizens who could not attend in person, such as working adults and people with limited mobility. Feedback often lacked spatial precision, making it difficult to integrate local knowledge into planning. Online and on-site participation channels were disconnected from one another. Urban development plans were complex and hard to understand, making it difficult for people to participate in an informed manner. Data from participation processes was not always accessible to the public, limiting transparency. And the digitization of public administration was often characterized by closed systems, with no shared infrastructure or open code for reuse or further development.
The goal was to overcome these barriers by creating a participation process that is accessible, clear, and genuinely connected to the people it serves — rather than one that excludes, confuses, or shuts citizens out of decisions that affect their city.
DIPAS was launched in 2017 as part of Hamburg's 'Digital First' strategy to rethink citizen participation in urban planning. Commissioned by the Hamburg Senate, it combined analogue participation tables (based on the 2016 Finding Places project) with an online participation platform, tested step by step in real-life planning procedures with scientific support. It was released as open source (GPL licence) in 2021 for reuse by other cities, and has since been developed further with city administration, academia, and the active DIPAS community.
The resulting solution offers an inclusive, low-barrier participation process reaching people with varying prior knowledge and time availability. It enables location-independent, GDPR-compliant participation, letting citizens contribute securely from anywhere, with easy submission of ideas, comments, and local knowledge. Map-based participation uses interactive maps, aerial photos, spatial data, and 3D models to collect location-specific feedback, supporting informed discussion through transparent information. All contributions, online and on-site, are centrally collected and analysed for structured, transparent evaluation.
DIPAS has been developed through continuous testing in real-world participation projects. Citizens provide feedback through real participation processes, while municipalities/city authorities, planners, researchers especially from the growing DIPAS Community identify new requirements. Therefore, new features and usability enhancements are regularly developed based on practical experience and user needs.
