Expert Knowledge in Land Use Planning : The Role of Information in Workshops, Scenario Building, Simulation Modelling and Decision Making

What role does expert information play in the planning process, and how can the role be enhanced by integrating information management and simulation modelling tools into a participatory decision-making exercise? We examine these questions through a survey of pertinent planning literature, and a case study. This paper reports a workshop with expert participants, which developed a set of future scenarios for Portugal's two largest metropolitan areas (Lisbon and Porto, Portugal). A methodology was set up targeting the inclusion of expert knowledge into the modelling process. The research and case study led to three principal conclusions: (1) that it is possible and profitable to include knowledge in decision-making that results from participation from a diversity of experts; (2) that what the experts considered to be the spatial output of their suggestions might be different from simulations that result from modelling; (3) that simulations based on policies that control and constrain the behaviour of urban systems can result in simulation outcomes that were unanticipated by the experts especially in their resultant spatial distributions