Understanding geodesign process dynamics: towards an analytical framework

Complexity in current spatial planning practice is mainly linked to the multi-dimensional context characterizing its processes. Following latest policies and strategic tools on sustainability, growing number of dimensions and principles should be considered in terms of development and process objectives. Particularly, the involvement of a wide range of actors along with traditional participatory methods make difficult to grasp the dynamics which led to the final decision. Hence, despite guiding principles such as transparency and information-based decision making, there is often insufficient clarity in the process of moving knowledge into action. Recent advances in collaborative Computer Aided Design (Co-CAD), Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Planning Support Systems (PSS), are nowadays enabling collaboration within increasingly complex workflows in planning and design. Such technologies are currently able to store data about the evolution of the design product, as earlier technology (e.g., CAD, GIS and geo-databases), but also log-data about the interaction of multiple users collaborating in collective design endeavors with the supporting digital platform. As such, log-data can be readily made available to the coordinators to monitor the process, including the temporal sequence of activities and tasks, the users' behavior and productivity, and the evolution of the design in space and time. The opportunity of analyzing this new type of data with digital dashboards may potentially enable to apply a sort of business intelligence perspective in real-time geodesign study coordination and management, and in retrospective or comparative studies, by mining what may be considered geodesign (processes) big-data. To date, early research in this direction was successfully undertaken in several close domains such as industrial design, architecture and construction engineering, but similar attempt in geodesign are still at a very early stage. Geodesign, as a new method of design practice relying on collaboration and digital technologies, can be thought of both as a verb and as a noun or in other words as a process and as a product of that process. Thus, understanding geodesign and assessing its value require dealing with the complexity of its twofold meaning, as both the quality of the product and of the unfolding of the process should be critically considered. Such an investigation may be useful both for learning from past case studies with the aim of improving future one, and for monitoring ongoing processes dynamically. While the experience and the observation skills of those involved in the coordination of geodesign studies will always be critical, the actual availability of new digital cockpits monitoring the process and its product real-time may potentially add substantial value, especially in fast-pace intensive geodesign workshops. The doctoral research aims at defining an operational analytical framework for analysing planning and design processes (Geodesign Process Analytics). Log-data gathered digitally during geodesign workshops thanks to the functionalities of currently available PSS (e.g., Geodesignhub), were used to operationally test the hypothesis. The methodology applies descriptive and inferential statistics to monitor the process real-time and ex-post through e-dashboards in which a variety of indicators is implemented considering the semantics macro-dimensions of log-data which include design, authorship, space, and time. Early findings confirm the huge potential of exploiting currently available log-data, as a novel data source to gain new insights about the collaborative design generation and about the social and behavioral aspects of design process dynamics. Investigating these aspects can increase the coordinator understanding of the process, which may, in turn, lead to improve the design outcomes, as well as, future processes.