Beyond the Townhall: Spatial Anchoring and LLM Agents for Scalable Participatory Urban Planning

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2604.16348v1
• Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:51:40 GMT
• Title: Beyond the Townhall: Spatial Anchoring and LLM Agents for Scalable Participatory Urban Planning
• Abstract summary: Participatory urban planning is central to sustainable city-making, yet the technically demanding nature of such interventions often limits meaningful involvement by diverse publics.<n>We introduce a scalable digital participation platform that embeds sustainability projects within a navigable digital twin.
• Score: 0.5473229173811306
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Participatory urban planning is central to sustainable city-making, yet the technically demanding nature of such interventions often limits meaningful involvement by diverse publics. We introduce a scalable digital participation platform that embeds sustainability projects within a navigable digital twin. Citizens experience a guided virtual walkthrough with audio narration employing the method of loci and spatial anchoring to support mnemonic encoding and recall. This immersive interface is augmented by two purpose-built LLM assistants: one delivers source-grounded factual clarifications, while the other facilitates reflective discussion. We evaluated this system in a randomized controlled online experiment (N = 195) against conventional industry practices (static visualizations and text-based consultations). Results show that spatially anchored immersive presentation significantly improved information recall, which substantially shifted participants' attention from individual inconveniences to collective, community-oriented sustainability benefits. Consequently, participants provided significantly more constructive, solution-focused feedback to the (simulated) municipality. These findings establish a practical tool for cities and policymakers to foster inclusive, democratic participation in sustainability transitions.

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