Empowerment is associated with all means, processes, and relationships which affect the ability of the public to balance their immediate living environment and directly or indirectly affect their wider social and physical environments. In this master's thesis, we focus on the effect of participation and the use of geographic information systems. Our aim was to determine how the selection of a geoinformation supported participative approach and its characteristics can affect public empowerment. By means of a systematic review of literature and sources, we defined geoinformation supported participatory approaches and other forms of geoinformation supported participation. By carrying out a qualitative meta-analysis of 45 participatory approaches, we found additional methodological differences between approaches and trends used to examine empowerment. An empowerment model and a typology of forms of geoinformation supported participatory approaches were designed on a pilot basis. In a two-dimensional model, the mapping method is based on differences in the aim and scope of the use of GIS, while the social approach is based on participation and the scope of use of social methods and techniques in the process of participation. The typology is derived from the model and findings of the meta-analysis. Empowerment is determined for six basic types, based on synthetized understanding.
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