Dataset description: This dataset contains the information needed to replicate the results presented in the article “Optimizing recruitment in an online environmental PPGIS—is it worth the time and costs?”. The data were collected as part of a study investigating recruitment strategies for a large-scale online public participation GIS (PPGIS) platform in coastal areas of northern Norway. To investigate different recruitment strategies, we reviewed previous environmental PPGIS studies using random sampling and methods to increase response rates. We compared the attained results with our large-scale PPGIS in northern Norway, where we used both random and volunteer (traditional and social media) sampling. The dataset includes response rates for the 5% of the population (13 regions in northern Norway) recruited by mail to participate in an online PPGIS survey, response rates from volunteers recruited through traditional and social media, synthetic demographic data, and the code necessary for processing demographic data to obtain the results presented in the article. Original demographic data is not shared due to privacy legislation. We furthermore calculated time spent and costs used for recruiting both randomly sampled persons and volunteers.

Article abstract: Public participation GIS surveys use both random and volunteer sampling to recruit people to participate in a self-administered mapping exercise online. In random sampling designs, the participation rate is known to be relatively low and biased to specific segments (e.g., middle-aged, educated men). Volunteer sampling provides the opportunity to reach a large crowd at reasonable costs but generally suffers from unknown sampling biases and lower data quality. The low participation rates and the quality of mapping question the validity and generalizability of the results, limiting their use as a democratic tool for enhancing participation in spatial planning. We therefore asked: How can we increase participation in online environmental PPGIS surveys? Is it worth the time and costs? We reviewed environmentally related online PPGIS surveys (n=26) and analyzed the sampling biases and recruitment strategies utilized in a large-scale online PPGIS platform in coastal areas of northern Norway via both random (16978 invited participants) and volunteer sampling. We found that the time, effort, and costs required to increase participation rates yielded meager results. We discuss the time and cost efficiency of different recruitment methods and the implications of participation levels despite the recruitment methods used.