Automated Information Systems for Urban Planning Support: New Opportunities and Legal Problems

In modern legal literature and regulations, information systems for urban planning support (hereinafter ISOGD, using Russian abbreviation) are still perceived as an information resource replacing the urban planning cadastre. However, over 20 years of development of such systems, they have acquired many functions in the field of automated decision-making. The procedure for applying these functions turned out to be unregulated in legislation and unexplored in the science of land and urban planning law. When preparing this article, two tasks were set: firstly, to show which functions of modern automated ISOGD require the attention of the legislator. Powerful visual-analytical functions of such systems involve the use of artificial intelligence (including image recognition technologies, big data processing technologies and Internet of Things data). Secondly, the task was to propose options for taking into account in legislation the features of the process of making urban planning decisions using artificial intelligence technologies (fully or partially automated decisions). In conducting this study, not only the formal legal method was used, but also logical methods of processing empirical data on the functional capabilities of specific systems. The use of empirical data of this kind is a feature of this study compared to many other works. On this basis, the authors of the article propose options for legal guarantees for the observance of the rights of citizens and organizations in the process of making fully or partially automated decisions using ISOGD. The basis for developing legal norms that take into account the specifics of using automated ISOGD can be the division of decisions made using ISOGD into fully and partially automated ones, with the establishment of the specifics of making such decisions.