A Scoping Review of Participatory GIS and WebGIS Integration for Bridging the Socio-technical Gap in Community-based Agricultural Networks

Abstract

Participatory GIS (PGIS) and web-based GIS (WebGIS) have developed as influential but largely distinct approaches to agricultural development and community resource management. PGIS emphasises grounded, face-to-face processes that empower communities through local knowledge production, collective interpretation and shared decision-making. WebGIS, by contrast, provides technical capabilities for spatial data storage, analysis, visualisation and dissemination across wider user networks. Despite repeated calls for greater integration, the extent and nature of combined PGIS–WebGIS applications in agriculture remain insufficiently understood. This scoping review examines 164 studies to assess how PGIS and WebGIS are being linked in agricultural contexts. It develops a typology of integration levels: None, Sequential, Partial and Fully Iterative, and maps each study’s contribution to bonding, bridging and linking social capital. The findings reveal a clear divide. Many studies are either PGIS-oriented, with strong local participation but limited continuity beyond project settings, or WebGIS-oriented, with sophisticated technical infrastructures but limited community agency. Fully iterative models that embed community governance, two-way feedback and the co-creation of spatial data remain exceptionally rare. The review exposes a socio-technical gap in which features that strengthen social capital, including peer communication, collective validation and transparent data governance, are more common in PGIS and face-to-face designs but largely absent from dominant WebGIS and one-way digital platforms. Bridging this gap requires a shift in platform ownership and design philosophy, from expert-controlled information delivery towards community-governed spatial commons. The review proposes a conceptual framework for Participatory WebGIS and outlines a research agenda centred on justice, inclusion and institutional embedding.