In Dutch spatial and enviromental planning, policymaking involves a negociation process between goverments and various interest groups. In order to support this process, GIS can be used as a visualization rather than an optimization tool. Instead of merely offering normative solutions, GIS should help the negotiating parties to evaluate and elaborate their views, in order to reach consensus. This paper discusses this new role of GIS in planning, and shows how at the National Physical Planning Agency a dedicated GIS-application, the Back-Yard-Explorer, was developed for the purpose. A prototype was applied in a Not-in-my-Back-Yard (NIMBY) context: the planning of sites for waste facilities. It determines the areas for new facilities and shows them in a map, given any set of criteria selected by the user.
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