GeoCitizen
Enabling Participation

About GeoCitizen

GeoCitizen is a digital hub for Community Management, Citizen Participation and Citizen Science. It supports citizen participation processes, community initiatives, citizen science projects and voluntary engagement on different geographic and administrative levels. The core aim of GeoCitizen is to establish a transparent and structured communication process for citizens, municipalities, researchers, economic operators and experts on topics like citizen-oriented development of municipalities, climate change adaptation in smallholder farming, emergency response, revitalization of abandonned urban spaces, amongst others. GeoCitizen supports the collaborative development and realization of projects with communities, academia, public authorities and other stakeholders of planning processes and sustainable projects.

How can GeoCitizen help me?

GeoCitizen is one single tool that can be used in more broadly designed participation processes that are carried out by research institutions, NGOs, municipalities, district organizations or grassroots organizations around the world. Naturally, GeoCitizen is available in different languages. A set of GeoCitizen functionalities are provided to the end-user. Additional modules and functionalities can be easily developed and amended based on APIs if needed in other project environments.

For further information, contact us!

Core Functionalities

Based on a common modular framework, the GeoCitizen hub can be smoothly framed to specific projects or geographic extents, as platform functionalities can be extended and adapted to other application domains such as community services, monitoring and evaluation of community-led projects, amongst others.

Multi-Device

Platform flexibility through Progressive Web App

Geo-Integration

Full map integration to display geo features and basemaps

Multi-Purpose

Multi-language, multi-purpose, multi-domain

Extendible Modules

Easily create and integrate new modules and functionalities

User Management

User- and role management and guest user access possible

Online and Offline

Offline activities can be syncronized when online mode is active

Use Cases

BÜRGERCOCKPIT ALBERNDORF

In spring 2019, a new version of the GeoCitizen (Bürgercockpit) was launched as part of the ongoing Agenda 21-initiative in the municipality of Alberndorf/Mühlviertel – Upper Austria. The Bürgercockpit Alberndorf so far comprehends a series of geo-enabled surveys in different topics of interest such as quality of life and mobility. Results can be reviewed online here.

GEOFARMER: SMALLHOLDER FARMERS AS INFLUENCERS

The GeoFarmer app allows community workers and farmers to easily collect and share information on climate-related agricultural interventions. Development agencies can use the tool to gather effective feedback and to respond to emergent needs of smallholder farmes that are trigged by changing environmental conditions.

SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGES: COORDINATING EMERGENCIES

The SOS-Geocitizen framework is a progressive web app (PWA) that meets three complementary needs of SOS Children’s Villages International (SOS CVI). First, it allows SOS staff, which are currently present in 135 countries (around 570 project locations), to take pictures that are automatically stored with a GPS tag and uploaded to the SOS media box.

MAP4YOUTH: REVITALIZING ABANDONED SPACES

Map4Youth is an initiative funded by the European Commission through its Erasmus+ Programme – Key Action 3: Structured dialogue and implemented by a consortium of two youth organizations: GISHUB from Padua (Italy) and ARS for Progress from Brussels (Belgium). The project is aimed at fostering youth engagement in decision-making within the city of Padua, Italy: through the use of the GeoCitizen-tool.

JUGENDCOCKPIT MICHAELNBACH

The municipality of Michaelnbach, in Upper Austria, has tried to support the inclusion of citizens into community projects and the development of new visions for a sustainable living in the community for 10 years. In spite of its small population, Michaelnbach is a pioneer for citizen participation. In the years 2017-18 it carried out the local “Agenda 21” process for the third time, the first two being in 2007 and 2012.

BÜRGERCOCKPIT STEYREGG

“Come right in” was the motto for the 12th of May, 2017 in the city office in Steyregg, where after almost 2 years of dialogue the results of the “Agenda 21” were presented. The municipality has emerged as a leader through its citizen engagement in an effort to improve and design the quality of life. With the implementation of the GeoCitizen App, a new era has begun.

AMAZONAS: PLANTING BRIDGES BETWEEN WORLDS

As members of the AmazonGISnet initiative, we support the indigenous nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon in using GIS for managing their ancestral territories. The work focuses on creating structures, mechanisms, and capacities for facilitating the access of knowledge, information, technical tools and experience in work practices and dialogues between participants of community-GIS-workshops, ...

QUITO SUR: A NEIGHBORHOOD RECREATES ITSELF

The citizen initiative BarrioBonito, in southern Quito, aims at improving the living environment at a neighborhood scale under the principles of self-management and self-responsibility of and within the participating neighborhoods using the GeoCitizen platform. This initiative is a response to the urgent need to identify alternative approaches to organize the governance of marginalized neighborhoods in Latin American cities.

SE4AMAZONIAN

The project SE4Amazonian aims at the delivering of sustainable energy sources to marginalized indigenous communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The GeoCitizen is used as a participatory mapping tool to integrate these communities in developing strategies for the provision of clean renewable energy.

GEOCITIZEN ATRI

The "GeoCitizen Atri" project is an initiative funded by the European Commission through its Erasmus+ programme. The project will be implemented by the Italian municipality of Atri, located in Central Italy, Abruzzo Region, in partnership with the Belgian NGO “ARS for Progress of People”. The initiative intends to promote the structured dialogue in the municipality of Atri and the active participation of young citizens of Atri in the political decisions that concern them directly.

BÜRGERCOCKPIT KREMSMÜNSTER

Building upon a long and successful tradition of engaging citizens in local governance, the City of Kremsmünster, Upper Austria, has started working with the GeoCitizen (Bürgercockpit)-Application in October, 2019. In a first step, the GeoCitizen survey tool is currently used to gather the opinion of the citizens of Kremsmünster on different issues in city planning and management.

COVID-19 COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Geocitizen was used within the past 5 years for several community management tasks, from rainforest monitoring, illegal logging detection, territorial landuse management issues (http://amazongisnet.net/ http://blog.geocomunidad.org/en/uncategorized-en/amazongisnet-2-2) to sustainable energy provision analysis (http://www.se4amazonian.com/en/).

Modules

  • GEO-ENABLED SURVEYS

    Geo-enabled surveys extend standard survey functionalities with features for geographical analysis and visualization. This allows you creating geo-referenced questionnaires and the spatially aggregated presentation of your survey results on easy-to-share digital maps.

  • SURVEY TREES

    Survey Trees help to structure complex surveys through applying a set of logical and mathematic conditions (if-then, etc.). This asissts you in personalizing your questionnaires to the needs of the end users, keeping track of sophisticated issues.

  • CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT

    The Citizen Engagement Module assists you in better managing, structuring and communicating your community projects through map-based reports (issues, ideas, favorite places), discussions, polling and transparent solution-building processes.

  • FACILITATOR-LED SURVEYS

    Facilitator-led surveys support your project team in interviewing persons that are not able to complete a digital survey on their own due to technical or personal restrictions (elderly or handicapped persons, etc).

  • PEER-TO-PEER KNOWLEDGE SHARING

    The Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Sharing module allows users to easily provide specific input and best practice cases to their communities and ask them for feedback in certain fields of interest, building a common knowledge base.

  • PUSH-SMS NOTIFICATIONS

    Push-Notifications assist process managers in keeping their communities up-to-date on the latest developments of their projects and iniciatives, as platform (push) notifications or Short-Message-Service (SMS).

  • Calculator

    After users’ input of requested data, compound variables are calculated following metrics, which are defined by a moderator and provide insights on defined criteria.

  • SKETCH MAPS

    On Sketch Maps, users can share their input on a specific issue or communicate their ideas in a creative way by drawing freehand on a digital map. Results can be easily integrated in further discussions or processes.

  • ALERT NOTIFICATIONS

    Alert Notifications help community leaders and organizations to verify third-party-information on emergency events and therefore better manage emergency response actions in their communities.

  • GDPR-CONFORM MEDIA UPLOAD

    The GDPR-conform media upload automatically verifies if user-generated media input (such as pictures and graphics) on the GeoCitizen-platform meets the EU-GDPR standard.

Our Apps