Abstract
Workshops were conducted as part of community planning projects by developing a workshop program to reduce the working time taken by preparations for town watching and map making, and to concentrate on community planning discussions. The workshop program allowed participants to introduce town watching and map making by using a geographic information system (GIS). We showed that a group using a GIS would take less time for map making. As a result, more time would be available for community planning discussion. However, there were some conflicts in the memories of the participants about the places discovered during town watching. Producing a map using a GIS resulted in more comprehensive and informative maps. The extra time available for community planning discussions allows a greater number of specific factors to be considered.
