Surveying Citizen's Engagement Pattern in Abasabad Projects with Focus on Spatial Citizenship Concept

Urban large-scale projects have always been a controversial topic of debates. These projects are time- and money-consuming and the rejection or approve of their functionality is based on political intentions. In the last hundred years, each of them costed billions of dollars from private or public budgeting, used technical and human resources. These risky-complex creatures are built to fulfill different desires from infrastructural needs like gas or oil projects up to luxurious projects like flagship projects in urban regeneration. The planning and construction of them accelerated specially after the World War II. In Tehran, Abasabad is a great example of these projects. Abasabad is a complex of fields at the center of Tehran, which they were used to be unused hills and gardens. However, the majority of urban planning policies lead to turning them into large-scale projects. All the process of planning and construction of Abasabad urban large-scale projects has done in non-participatory way. So, the question of whether Abasabad large-scale projects meet citizens’ interest or not has been arisen. It assumed that citizens are satisfied with the function of these projects. In order to prove the assumption, “Spatial citizenship” as an applied participatory approach was used. Spatial citizenship has been created as a practical approach to use the special potential of virtual spaces and spatial data. This method is supported by GIS and participation concepts via internet. The two main components of “Spatial citizenship” are “Spatial citizen” and “geomedia”. A geomedia provides a space for citizens to criticize urban planning trends without concerning to be recognized. Therefore, citizens can be easily part of planning procedures. To add to the point raised before, this kind of planning is more effective and creative in problem solving. To start out with, “Our Abasabad” as a geomedia of this approach, is designed and implemented. There are two major sections in “Our Abasabad”. Active participation takes place in the first section based on PPGIS concept. An online survey is in the second one. There are also other sections based on a standard geomedia, e.g. geocommunication or geovisualization parts. During the test time of geomedia 510 users used it. By analyzing the answer of survey with statistical test of t- One sample, it has been proved that citizens of Tehran are satisfied with Abasabad large-scale projects. When all is said and done, a broad spectrum of research conducted in this area reveals that, Abasabad large-scale projects have inherent difference from the other large-scale projects. Most of these projects are environmental-friendly and public beneficiary, they develop the sense of belonging and local identity of citizens. So that they succeeded in capturing citizens’ attention and made them satisfy. Consistent with this, the result of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of citizen for each project is depicted on a map due to 136 users who participate in the second section. Finally, the research concludes that spatial citizenship is a method which leads to participation improvement, power transparency and it is an effective way in problem solving in urban planning.