# Using Pozi web map to gather community feedback

By
Megan Barrow
Published 2019-06-16

Pozi makes gathering community feedback about specific locations a breeze!

We recently helped the Rural City of Wangaratta gather community feedback for their Walking and Cycling Strategy and capture residents’ feedback about existing and potential paths within the municipality.

Rural City of Wangaratta used Pozi to gather community feedback for their Walking and Cycling Strategy

# Why community feedback was important

The Council needed feedback and input to prioritise actions and fully understand:

  • Problems locals encounter when they walk or cycle;
  • Improvements needed to help people walk and cycle;
  • Opportunities to expand the current network of paths, off-road trails, bike lanes and gaps in existing facilities; and
  • How schools, workplaces and community could encourage more people to walk or cycle.

To achieve this, the Council took advantage of the included community consultation module in their Pozi subscription package, requiring no additional budget.

# Pozi customisation to meet project brief

While we had already implemented many community consultation projects for other councils, Wangaratta’s requirements were unique in wanting their residents to:

  • Provide feedback on existing map locations,
  • Be able to enter new user-submitted locations on a map, and
  • Allow public comments on other users’ submissions.

The Council also wanted to use the feedback function themselves to notify users of future updates to keep them engaged in the strategy as it progressed post data collation stage.

Further to the Council’s scope, we customised Pozi to enable users to submit feedback at locations of their choosing, as well as for existing walking and cycling pathways. And, after public submissions were closed, council staff were able to add further comments on user’s submissions to acknowledge feedback and update on specific feedback.

# How Pozi web map helped gather community feedback

The council provided residents with a dedicated link that opened a custom view of the Pozi web map, where they could add comments related to walking and cycling on specific locations on the map.

Pozi web map allows customers to provide feedback straight onto a map

To enter their feedback, the process was simple:

  1. Open the Pozi map link provided by Rural City of Wangaratta
  2. Navigate the map to locate a walking or cycling path location
  3. Click “Add feedback” button and answer some simple questions
  4. Press “Submit”

Once moderated by Council and Pozi administrators, the feedback was then posted publicly as a post.

The Pozi Map allows customers to read other comments and feedback and engage within the community.

The council received an email of every submission, giving them the opportunity to moderate the posts as they were added to the map.

All public posts were marked on the map as a feedback icon that people could view, like and comment on by clicking on a location’s icon. Once clicked, the feedback form would show the original entry and the user could click a ‘like’ button or fill in the comment box to add their contribution.

# The results

Over a 6-week period, residents made 236 posts, likes and comments about 110 unique locations across the municipality.

Beyond the community acceptance and engagement delivered, Pozi’s map-based capture allowed for transparency of feedback and the ability for other community members to verify and/or challenge other’s input with clarity of location data. This added further weight to feedback for decision-makers and a sense of community engagement – like a social media platform.

The community’s comments on specific location data directly contributed to informing the next stage of the Council’s strategy and key priorities. It also allowed the community to be a part of a transparent decision-making process.

# What did Rural City of Wangaratta have to say about Pozi?

How did having an online web map to gather community feedback help Rural City of Wangaratta’s strategy? We asked key personnel at the Council for feedback.

"Pozi has been one of the most important ways we have gathered information to inform our Walking & Cycling Strategy. It allowed community members to interact with other comments, to either challenge their ideas, or strengthen them. The ability to have comments against a map has been crucial and, if not the most, one of the most effective ways in which we have received community feedback. Visualising the comments against a map has allowed for better analysis and easier resolutions to the feedback received, rather than if it had of been received by other methods."

Monique Hillenaar, Community and Recreation Officer

Pozi helped enrich the community feedback information gathering process by using interactive tools on the map as well as using surveys and online forms. Users could see the exact asset/feature they were leaving a comment for and have confidence in erasing confusion about what they want and, importantly, where.

Stephen Firns, GIS Officer

# Need to gather community feedback for your location?

If you need to gather community feedback that would benefit from being visually represented on a GIS web map, contact us on for a friendly chat on (03) 9017 6850 or visit our contact page.