In the face of increasing complexity and uncertainty, planners, public officials, and community residents need new tools to anticipate and shape the future. Opening Access to Scenario Planning Tools examines the current state of scenario planning and scenario planning tools that can help communities and regions prepare for that future through a variety of visioning, land use, transportation, and other planning efforts. A unique opportunity presents itself to use the best and latest technology to help citizens visualize the future of their cities and regions, so that they might chart a course for sustainable growth. Decisions about the future are often controversial due to competing economic interests, different cultural values, and divergent views about property rights and the role of government. Broader and more effective civic engagement is needed to ensure community support for decisions about development and other land-related policies, and public investments. The traditional predict-and-plan paradigm is inadequate to address all of these challenges. The authors identify a clear need to develop and implement planning tools and processes that foster anticipation and adaptation. Three concepts will be critical to the scenario planning and tool-building process: collaboration, capacity building, and creation of an open environment for engagement. Collaborative problem solving facilitates resolution of interrelated issues that cannot be resolved by one organization alone. Capacity building is needed to enable individuals and organizations to apply scenario planning methods and tools effectively to their specific planning concerns. An open environment for information sharing and education will help accelerate the use and improvement of scenario planning tools in multiple settings. The emergence of new and improved scenario planning tools over the last 10 years offers promise that the use of scenario planning can increase and that the goal of providing open access to the full potential of scenario planning tools is within reach. This report recommends seven immediate actions that could be implemented quickly to facilitate this goal. A group of tool developers, planners, and other users convened by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Sonoran Institute, including the co-authors of this report, are already working to advance these efforts.

Exploratory scenario planning (XSP) can help communities prepare for uncertainties posed by climate change, pandemics, automation, and other unprecedented twenty-first-century challenges. This manual is a comprehensive resource for anyone interested in using this emergent planning approach, which is effective at the local, regional, or organizational level. Through the XSP process, stakeholders envision and develop various potential futures (i.e., scenarios) and consider how to measure and prepare for each, rather than working toward a single shared vision for the future. Through instructive case studies, recommendations, sample workshop agendas, and more, this manual equips would-be practitioners with the background knowledge, procedural guidance, and practical strategies to implement this planning tool successfully. Readers will be prepared to facilitate--or even lead--an effective, impactful XSP process in their own settings.

The Routledge Handbook of International Planning Education is the first comprehensive handbook with a unique focus on planning education. Comparing approaches to the delivery of planning education by three major planning education accreditation bodies in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and reflecting concerns from other national planning systems, this handbook will help to meet the strong interest and need for understanding how planning education is developed and delivered in different international contexts. The handbook is divided into five major sections, including coverage of general planning knowledge, planning skills, traditional and emerging planning specializations, and pedagogy. An international cohort of contributors covers each subject’s role in educating planners, its theory and methods, key literature contributions, and course design. Higher education’s response to globalization has included growth in planning educational exchanges across international boundaries; The Routledge Handbook of International Planning Education is an essential resource for planners and planning educators, informing the dialogue on the mobility of planners educated under different national schema.

This timely Research Handbook examines the evolution of smart growth over the past three decades, mapping the trajectory from its original principles to its position as an important paradigm in urban planning today. Critically analysing the original concept of smart growth and how it has been embedded in state and local plans, contributions from top scholars in the field illustrate what smart growth has accomplished since its conception, as well as to what extent it has achieved its goals.

Geographical Information Systems, Three Volume Set is a computer system used to capture, store, analyze and display information related to positions on the Earth’s surface. It has the ability to show multiple types of information on multiple geographical locations in a single map, enabling users to assess patterns and relationships between different information points, a crucial component for multiple aspects of modern life and industry. This 3-volumes reference provides an up-to date account of this growing discipline through in-depth reviews authored by leading experts in the field. VOLUME EDITORS Thomas J. Cova The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States Ming-Hsiang Tsou San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States Georg Bareth University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany Chunqiao Song University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States Yan Song University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States Kai Cao National University of Singapore, Singapore Elisabete A. Silva University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom Covers a rapidly expanding discipline, providing readers with a detailed overview of all aspects of geographic information systems, principles and applications Emphasizes the practical, socioeconomic applications of GIS Provides readers with a reliable, one-stop comprehensive guide, saving them time in searching for the information they need from different sources

With human-induced environmental impacts disrupting human life in deeper ways and at a wider scale than anything previously experienced, this multidisciplinary book looks at the ways that current knowledge bases seem inadequate to help us deal with such realities. It offers a critical appraisal of the current knowledge infrastructure, including science, technology, innovation, education and informal knowledge systems.

Instead of seeking theory to justify practical professional judgments this book describes how professionals can and should use theory to guide these judgments. Professional spatial planning in the US, and globally, continues to suffer from a weak conceptual grasp of its own practice. Practitioners routinely recognize the value and wisdom of practical judgment finely attuned to context, nuance and complexity; but later offer banal testimony and glib stories of ‘just so’ best-practice discrediting the ambiguity of their own experience. The chapters in this book provide a vocabulary tailored to the conventions of practical judgment, challenging students and practitioners to treat professional expertise as work in progress rather than ‘best’ practice. Instead of seeking theory to justify practical professional judgments, Hoch describes how professionals can and should use theory to guide these judgments. The pragmatist plan helps cope with complexity rather than control it, making it invaluable in the anyone’s pursuit of a planning career. This book will appeal to a wide cross section of students and scholars, especially those working in urban planning, public policy, and government.