SCENARIO PLANNING
We use scenario planning to help communities explore different ways of achieving their long term vision, or to provide insights on how different external factors might impact that vision.
The development and design of different scenarios for the future is both an art and a science. The art entails engaging the public and crafting plausible stories about the future with words and visualizations that reflect different themes and urban forms. The science involves utilizing tools and methods rooted in the science of how cities work to help design scenarios that quantify performance of city systems in achieving different community goals. Scenarios aren’t forecasts or predictions, they are ways of imagining a tomorrow that might be different from today and using those insights to clarify and refine a way forward in community planning. From those scenarios community members can identify new strategies, policies, programs or projects that best support desired community goals. Scenarios can also inform policy or investment strategies that can be incorporated into comprehensive plans, long range transportation plans and other initiatives for implementation.
We have a scenario planning practice of national significance. We were one of the original innovators of scenario planning over a decade ago, having developed CorPlan, an early scenario planning tool, under a 1999 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Transportation, Community and System Preservation (TCSP) grant for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission and Charlottesville Albermarle Metropolitan Planning Organization in Virginia.
Renaissance has worked with many counties, regions and MPOs to incorporate scenario planning methods into their existing planning processes. Renaissance has also worked at a national scale to provide guidance on best practices in scenario planning.
FEATURED PROJECTS
Space Coast TPO 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan (Brevard County, FL)