Geoprocessing, Geodesign and Urban Parameters: Geoinformation and Co-Creation of Ideas in Urban Planning Teaching

Abstract

This paper presents an academic experience that uses geospatial technologies and geodesign in urban planning teaching considering citizens’ listening, place characterization and propositional design. In addition, it makes use of alternative urban parameters, the Completeness Indicators, applied in local scale urban planning in an undergraduate degree course in Architecture and Urbanism, at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. It was an experience of space diagnosis, followed by a geodesign workshop to propose changes to the central area of Belo Horizonte city. The students learned about co-creation of ideas with the goal to achieve the condition of completeness of the urban space, considering mobility, environment and place quality of the streets. As a result, it was possible to see from this experience that while the geoinformation and geovisualization of the study area were consolidated, the assertiveness of the proposals improved and the mastery over the study area by the students increased. Thus, the article is structured as follows: (i) brief presentation and description of the case study area; (ii) details of the methodological steps used in the course; (iii) report on the development of activities and experiences of the geodesign workshop with the students; (iv) results and analyzes of the experience and, finally, (v) considerations about the academic experience, methods and tools explored for local scale urban planning teaching.