The paper introduces an innovative, open source cloud platform for the efficient, knowledge-based, sustainable and inclusive development of urban parks - Bahrain Parks.
We describe the local context at the genesis of the initiative, its components, and the rationale for the creation of a comprehensive database. We summarise the data available and explain how the application leverages it to useful information for decision-making on park maintenance, planning, and design.
We share our initial findings regarding the official acceptance and attempt to integrate the application in workflows at several agencies.
To our knowledge, the project is unique as it is being developed to incorporate an evidence-based design process comprehensively. Furthermore, it embeds explicit and implicit public participation in decision-making, through park rating and usage. We argue that the project belongs to the sphere of e-governance.
Silva, J., P. (2017): Bahrain Parks: A Cloud Platform for Planning, Designing, and Managing Public Parks, In Ahmed, A.(Ed.): Digital revolution, smart cities and performance improvement, Vol. 15, pp. 365-377.
