E-participation in planning: an analysis of cities adopting on-line citizen participation tools

E-government tools provide municipal planning departments with an alternative means to inform and engage their citizenry. We examine the use of information and communication technology e-government tools to promote citizen participation in the planning process. The analysis is based on an examination of municipal planning-related websites for the 590 US cities with a 2000 Census population of 50 000 or more. We also explore the influence which demographic contextual factors have on what tools are provided. Principal findings highlight the dominance of simple, information-based, e-government tools. The analyses also suggest that population-related and geographic-related variables are significant and pervasive influences on the provision of these tools.