The Relevance of Engaging the Future in Planning Practices

Planning practices are intrinsically connected to the discipline of future thinking. Any planner must have, consciously or not, an opinion regarding the complex images of future developments. This chapter emphasizes some basic understanding and opinions based on the author’s research experiences and debates. In this book, we clarify on how often scenario models take on different meanings but have similar obstacles. Factors such as scale, uncertainty, and scenario time process are discussed with regard to their role in planning practices. Future approaches and tools should avoid neutralizing problems, but encompass limits and critical impacts.