Publish land use data through Urban Planning Geoportal (FR0061)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Citizens and professionals can have difficulty accessing urban planning documents. The Urban Planning Geoportal addresses this issue by: 1) Making information on land use policy available to the general public. Before the Geoportal, citizens may have experienced difficulties, since municipalities did not all make urban planning documents available in the same way (paper vs. electronic, different formats, etc.). However, although the GPU addressed this issue by making all urban planning documents available in one place, there has been little uptake by the general public, who seem to still be going to their local town hall for information. Access to urban planning information is a democratic issue, as it informs public debate on land use policy. 2) Giving urban planners access to data to speed up pre-construction work (particularly property assessments). Developing a standard format for urban planning documents – a necessity for storing them in a single place – helps urban planning professionals make better use of all relevant documentation.

What is the commitment? Thanks to the Geoportal, it is easier for the general public to access documentation, and professionals also have access to reliable data for their assessments and other applications. To best meet future needs as the Geoportal develops, there are two civil society/professional partnerships that could benefit upcoming versions: - With Open Data France for issues pertaining to data - With the National Association of Development Councils for issues pertaining to land use and citizen consultation The aim of these partnerships will be to make data more accessible and understandable for informed and interested members of the general public as well as professionals, and to develop new features to meet identified needs. Negotiations are underway for both partnership agreements.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? The partnership with sponsor associations will consist of participating in user workshops to get details on the needs of citizens and professionals for new features of the Geoportal to be developed. These workshops will help identify needs to incorporate them into developments for version 5 of the Geoportal. This partnership could also involve reporting to users on updates to the tool. The approach used for the Geoportal is therefore a three-pronged co-development approach: involve stakeholders, take into account their needs and report back to them.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? Creating and making ongoing improvements to the Geoportal is fully relevant to OGP objectives as it helps improve the quality and availability of public information. It opens up new uses for land use data, for both citizens and urban planning professionals. Additionally, this commitment is relevant in terms of public accountability, as it allows citizens to compare the quality and clarity of urban planning documentation produced by local authorities. It also 44 allows citizens to learn more about land use policies decided on and implemented by local authorities.

Additional information http://www.geoportail-urbanisme.gouv.fr

Action Plan Review

Commitment 11. Improve access to information on spatial planning policy through the Urban Planning Geoportal

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest