Incorporating multiparty preferences into land-use planning

Depending on circumstances, a land-use planning exercise is an attempt to meet the demands of one, two, or more clients. For multiparty planning exercises, the relative extent to which the demands of different parties are met is ultimately a political decision. Nonetheless, within this constraint, if ‘public participation’ is to have any legitimacy, it is important that the demands of each party be clearly recognised and satisfied to the maximum extent possible in a compromise plan. Two approaches to producing a compromise plan are distinguished and discussed: (a) plan adjusting and (b) plan blending. The PARTISAN decision-support package is described and demonstrated. PARTISAN is independent of but compatible with the LUPIS land-use planning package. PARTISAN accepts LUPIS-generated and/or intuitive planning suggestions from individual interest groups and blends these in one of several alternative ways into a single compromise plan reflecting preferences of and relative influence assigned to each party. By making use of already existing LUPIS capabilities for selective and conditional reallocation of land uses to zones, PARTISAN is further able to provide guidance, suggestions, and book-keeping assistance to parties seeking to negotiate further small changes to the compromise plan.