In urban planning, plans increasingly contain exploratory scenarios describing urban futures and uncertainty. However, when it comes time to decide what infrastructure is built, too often all the nuance is thrown out for narrow-minded cost benefit analysis and simplistic and politicized all-or-nothing decisions. I think we can do better! In 2021-2022 I hosted Thomas Machiels […]
New Article Presents Case Study of Collaborative, Data-Driven Scenario Planning for Transit
About five years ago, I was invited to join a group of researchers who planned to undertake a smart mobility research project in partnership with community stakeholders in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Unlike in much of my prior research on scenario planning which relies on learning from professional practice, in this project I had the opportunity […]
Op-Ed: “Collaboration on planning, innovation the key to a more sustainable Ann Arbor”
I published an op-ed in the Michigan Daily online today, arguing for the need for greater collaborative planning and innovation to foster sustainability on campus and in the city and region. Here’s the full text: If you’ve been away over the summer, you may have missed some exciting new developments here on campus! Did you […]
Overcoming Obstacles to Scenario Planning
Over the last couple of years, I’ve presented about my book, Scenario Planning for Cities and Regions: Managing and Envisioning Uncertain Futures many times. While preparing a presentation for the Inter-American Development Bank’s Regional Policy Dialog, I began to reflect on what obstacles face practitioners seeking to introduce scenario planning in their local contexts. As […]
New Publication: “Scenario Planning for Slow-Growing Regions”
Many urban regions outside of booming metros experience “sprawl without growth” — where the urban core loses population and new sprawl development is added at the fringe even as the overall regional population remains stable (or even declines). Thus far the planning field didn’t have a great way to model scenarios for this situation. Together […]
New Article Presents a Spatial Model for Prioritizing Green Infrastructure Locations
There is a lot of interest in green infrastructure in cities, which can refer to a variety of landscape elements like trees, swales, parks, and conservation areas, for fostering environmental quality, mitigating the urban heat island effect, and reducing stormwater runoff. However, there is a lack of methods for identifying which locations to prioritize for […]
Are We in the Era of Platform Urbanism?
The Shifting Landscape of Cities and Technology For years it has been obvious that digital technologies have become deeply embedded in cities, but it has been difficult to conceptualize this change. My scholarly career has seen a revolving door of buzzwords and concepts surrounding technology in cities, like open data, open government, gov 2.0, civic […]