American Planning Association

It seems the word “unprecedented” has been used so often to describe everything from the weather to public health in recent years that the only certainty is uncertainty. This makes the job of urban planners especially difficult as they try to anticipate what their cities will need in the decades to come. In the business world, a type of modeling called exploratory scenario planning (XSP) has been helping companies cope with volatility for decades. Now the idea is gaining traction among planners, thanks to the work of researchers like Robert Goodspeed, AICP. In this episode, APA Research Manager Joe DeAngelis, AICP, sits down with Goodspeed to talk about how XSP can help planners bring together disparate stakeholders and variables to build robust plans that can help cities prepare for whatever comes next — be it rain, shine, boom or bust. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/robert-goodspeed-on-how-exploratory-scenario-planning-helps-imagine-uncertain-futures/