Planning Practice
Many decisions made by planners will have effects that last for decades, highlighting the importance of making the right decisions now. The Lincoln Institute helps planners innovate, stay abreast of trends and research, and grow and evolve through shared learning, peer engagement, and technical support.
Scenario Planning
Planners are facing a range of issues including climate change, pandemics, rapid urbanization, and other unprecedented twenty-first-century challenges. As a structured approach for participatory and evidence-driven decision-making, scenario planning helps cities and regions prepare and plan for this uncertain future. Through research, peer-to-peer learning, networking, training, and technical assistance, our Consortium for Scenario Planning helps communities adapt in sustainable and resilient ways. Our Scenario Planning work includes:
Scenario Planning Workshops
Communities facing uncertainty can use scenario planning workshops to navigate issues and identify solutions to problems such as natural disasters, population decline, or housing affordability, to name a few. We support and conduct scenario planning workshops in these communities as part of technical assistance programs.
Annual Research and Implementation Cycles
The Consortium for Scenario Planning runs annual cycles to support research into the use and best practices of scenario planning around the world. The consortium will also support the workshops developed as part of these research cycles.
Annual Consortium for Scenario Planning Conference
The consortium’s annual February conference is a gathering of scenario planning experts and practitioners sharing their work and learning from each other.
Peer Exchanges
The consortium hosts two free, virtual peer exchanges annually to highlight scenario planning work that has been supported or initiated by the Lincoln Institute.
Learn More About the Consortium for Scenario PlanningOur Other Work
Big City Planning Directors Institute
The Big City Planning Directors’ Institute is an annual collaboration of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and the American Planning Association that has been happening for more than 20 years. By convening planning directors from the nation’s largest cities, we examine emerging public policy questions and shared challenges that influence the planning and design of large cities and their metropolitan regions.
APA Foresight
We partner with the American Planning Association (APA) on the development of an annual Trend Report for Planners that features a list of over 100 existing, emerging, and potential future trends that the APA Foresight team, together with our Trend Scouting Foresight Community, identified as relevant to helping planners navigate change and prepare for an uncertain future.
Visualizing Density
We’re currently revamping our Visualizing Density web application, which will serve as a guide to density in all its different forms. Planners, policymakers, practitioners, journalists, and citizens will be encouraged to explore how different densities fit into the context of cities and towns around the world.
Resources
Recent Publications
Scenario Planning for Cities and Regions
Robert Goodspeed
LegacySP
Emma Walters and Arnab Chakraborty
How to Use Exploratory Scenario Planning (XSP)
Jeremy Stapleton
Megaregions and America’s Future
Robert D. Yaro, Ming Zhang, and Frederick R. Steiner
Consortium for Scenario Planning 2024 Conference
This in-person annual conference showcases new and existing scenario planning projects around the country.
Sowing Seeds
This video follows Mesa County’s experience participating in an exploratory scenario planning (XSP) workshop and explains how XSP works and what the process entails.
What is Exploratory Scenario Planning
This explainer video gives an overview of the exploratory scenario planning process
Exploratory Scenario Planning with Multi-Stakeholder Platforms in Food Systems: A Toolkit
This toolkit is designed for those interested in holding a workshop for exploratory scenario planning (XSP) with multi-stakeholder platforms working in food systems.
Scenario Planning for Food Systems: Workshops with Food Systems Foresight
The Lincoln Institute and Food Systems Foresight led a discussion and Q&A on using scenario planning to explore shocks and stressors food systems around the world are facing.
Land Matters Podcast: Staying Calm and Planning On
Planners have traditionally labored largely behind the scenes but are becoming more visible as they explain their work and try to keep the peace, said author Josh Stephens on this episode of the Land Matters podcast.
Scenario Planning for Legacy Cities: A Case Study in Lakewood, Ohio
This workshop focused on using scenario planning to explore growth and housing challenges in legacy cities like Lakewood, Ohio.
