Municipalities and Information Society in Portugal
Transcription
Municipalities and Information Society in Portugal
Theme 3.The multiple cultures of the Information Society Municipalities and Information Society in Portugal Graça MOREIRA Department of Social Sciences Faculty of Architecture. TULisbon , email: [email protected] Phone: +351-21-361-5828 Abstract The emergence of information technology in planning practice at the municipal level is a recent phenomenon in Portugal .Recently the use of Internet as a means of developing new relationships with citizen can be a very important step to develop participatory planning. Debate on the concept of Digital Cities started in Portugal in the late 90’s when the first goal was to inform the citizen about decisions taken by the municipalities. Cities in Portugal are faced with different challenges that are specific to their complex character and stage of development. Our case studies consider the experience of Almada and Peninsula de Setúbal (Lisbon Metropolitan Area). These projects try to create ' Portals'that provide and promote access to information on local government, economic enterprise, education, health and tourism. There are also projects to create electronic forums accessible by all, as well as virtual communities. The municipalities aim to have as many services as possible available on-line (forms for download, tax information, etc), as well as providing public information on political representatives municipal decisions , competitions for projects, access to libraries, museums and other cultural facilities This research paper is about the problems faced by the public in the understanding planning area sites al local level. What are the main problems when citizens need to analyse a subject like local or regional planning and how the municipalities are implementing these relations. Evaluate if different socio-economic groups, more rural (east part of case study area) or more urban (north and west part of case study area) in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area have the same problems to use this new technologies. If the answer of municipalities is similar or if they are trying a specific approach the each population. 1. Introduction Planning and democracy as not being together in urban life for a long time, but new approaches in urban and regional planning recognise that a informed population and a democratic participation can be a good value for planning. According to Castells (2004) “this information age is not just about information and knowledge…..I know no society I which information and knowledge have not been absolutely decisive in every aspects of society….the information technology revolution happens with the microelectronics based information and communication technology paradigm is creating something new now.” . Information technologies can support the development of e-government and be a very good support for democratic planning specially in the area of public participation in decision making. To be a sustainable world is a participated world for all, not only for the elites. When public authorities want to involve all society they must use these powerful tools. The use of Internet began in the e-government area with Public Services as a system of information for places and activities, gradually approaching more sophisticated matters both from a technological and knowledge point of view, along with the diffusion of the broadband throughout the territory. The more common way to give access to broadband is by cable which creates important differentiations in the territory, excluding some areas from Information Society or at least making more difficult there complete integration and benefice. Lisbon Metropolitan Area is, according with ESPON the more developed area in Portugal. Fig 1 Broadband internet access in Europe 2. The Portuguese context The Information Technologies have been developing at a quite fast pace in Portugal in the last ten years. Nevertheless the country still shows a very low level of access to Internet in households (31% with internet access at home and only 20% with broad band) comparing with other European countries. The best access is in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Fig1) The first phase of development of the information society was related to the installation of infrastructures allowing the access to Internet; at the same time the diffusion of personal computers increased, which has been quite important in a country where the purchasing power is relatively low. Only in a second moment the diffusion of broadband has increased. The surge of Portuguese contents came a bit later, but has gained great visibility since. Observing data from 2006, 96% of the Portuguese municipalities (they are 308) were connected with Internet. If it is analysed the reason that determines the development of a website (fig.2) in first place comes the diffusion of institutional information about the City Council (Camara Municipal) with 99% at the same level of the promotion of tourism and culture. Fig. 2 Determinant reasons to the creation of a website in municipality % Promotion of Tourism and Culture Publish institutional information about "Camara Municipal" Publish the cultural / sportive agenda Better connection between local power and citizens Promote the socio-economic development of municipality Approach the emigrant communities with their municipality Promote the information technologies in the municipality Availability of online services 99 99 97 89 82 75 74 62 Source : OSIC 2006 When analysed the sort of functions available in the websites (fig.3), it is important the value of the download of forms 74% and public consultation in planning area 36%. Fig. 3 Functions available in the website of "Camara Municipal" % E-mail to suggestions and complaint Download and print of forms Subscription of newsletters Public consultation process (Spatial Planning) support of the users (Helpdesk) Inquiries to the citizens Material about the municipality To fill and Submission on-line of forms On-line vote Forums of discussion between local authorities and citizens Online payments Transmission by video conference of the municipal meetings 78 74 41 36 27 24 22 21 15 14 2 2 Source : OSIC 2006 In the sort of information available in the website of the municipalities (fig. 4) it has a great importance the municipal information with local spatial planes 81%. Almost all Municipalities (89%) also consider the services to the citizen by Internet as part of their strategy to develop the dissemination of TIC in their territory. Fig. 4 Information available in the website of "Camara Municipal" % Organization Chart of "Camara Municipal" Municipal information and local planes Advertising of Municipal meetings Resolutions in meetings and sessions of the municipality CV and contacts of Municipal leaders Information about services Information about municipal taxes Administrative resolutions Activity planes and activity reports 83 81 79 75 73 72 65 49 49 Source : OSIC 2006 3. Case Study The introduction of Internet as a tool in the municipalities was initially implemented with the application of the concept of Digital city had been used in Portugal was in 1998, when the government implemented a pilot program for the development of Digital Cities. This process came together with the introduction the notion of e-government at local level, with interesting experiences in Aveiro, a city in the littoral center with a University and a Telecommunications Research Center, that integrated public services through telematic networks, improving city life in all aspects, and Castelo Branco, a city in the inner center, where the main objective was to fight the effects of inland location involving some areas of the community like health services. Following the experimental period of 1998-2000 the development of this area was supported by the 3rd Community Support Framework within the Regional Development Program 2000-2006. It was then created the Operational Program for the “Information Society” (POSI) under the Ministry of Science and Technology with a total budget of 625.035 euros co-financed by ERDF, ESF and national funds. It was in the scope of priority II measure 2.3, Integrated projects: from digital Cities to Digital Portugal, that received 37% of the financing of the program, that were approved since 2001, projects to promote among other areas, the development of e-government at the level of local government and creation of accessibilities who aloud population to familiarize and use Internet. All projects intend to reduce administrative bureaucracy connect the population with some services in the area of education ,health and culture, support touristy information and at planning level show interest in presenting cartographical information using GIS. In 2005 this program was renegotiated and incorporated 5 more priorities (and more 252548 k euros) and one of the new priorities is to reinforce the importance of diffusion of broad band and the local e-government was concerned. In this paper will be analysed two different situations Almada and Setubal Region in the MAL (Metropolitan Area of Lisbon) 3.1 Almada The development of the use of Internet in local e-government began in 2002 in this City in the South Bank of Lisbon Metropolitan Area in front of Lisbon. It was an industrial city with a strong link as a suburb to Lisbon. Fig. 5: Site of Almada Cidade Digital. Almada has a project at municipal level where the connection through wide band Intranet of all municipal services spread throughout the region has a great weight. (Fig 3). This project represents the importance of Technical geography as the telecommunications infrastructure of the internet and the spatial distribution of the Internet’s broad bandwidth towards the ulterior success of e-government (CASTELLS, 2001). Fig 6 Map of spatial management It developed an interesting area connecting services to the population through the availability of cartography at various scales and maps of the Spatial Plan (PDM) against the payment of a fee. This project has been organized along four areas: The foundations of Digital City The digital community: Accessibility for everyone in the digital city: Digital Municipality o Intranet o Civil protection and civil prevention o Municipality on-line o Site Dialugares Analysing the local planning sites (fig.6 and 7) it finds an interactive system where it is possible to choose the most important subjects to the spatial management of the territory, but only experts can use it, in a profitable way by the sort of maps presented. Fig 7. Map of spatial conflicts 3.2 Setubal Region The Setubal regional project is made with 7 municipalities working together to develop several areas with learning benefits. Each municipality has his owned site with the information defined. Some like the municipality of Barreiro (fig. 9) developed a system with aero photos that make the comprehension of the territory much easier. Some others have less developed projects. Fig. 8: Site of Setúbal Region Fig 9. Ortophotomap of Barreiro city 4. Conclusion Planning area is consider by the municipalities a very important area to be presented in their websites. The level of development of the way to present this subject is very irregular. The target public is in first place the experts, who can understand the information and only in a secondary level the local population. The development of websites in this subject to the local population is in the beginning but can be a very interesting subject in the future. 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