Scenario planning is a process in which professional planners and citizens work together to analyze and shape the long-term future of their communities. Using a variety of tools and techniques, participants in scenario planning assess trends in key factors such as transportation, land use, demographics, health, economic development, environment, and more. The many participants bring factors together in alternative future scenarios, each of these reflecting different trend assumptions and tradeoff preferences. In some cases, all members of the community-the general public, business leaders, and elected officials-reach agreement on a preferred scenario. This scenario then becomes the long-term policy framework for the community's evolution, and is used to guide decision-making.

In scenario planning, several options are considered and objectively evaluated against quantifiable criteria. Scenario planning is more flexible and allows for more creativity than conventional planning, especially in creating solutions that are not initially obvious. Evolving out of the same process that is used to create environmental impact statements, a “do nothing” alternative is compared with several other options, and a final plan is devised from the objective evaluation of each scenarios effectiveness.

The problem with scenario planning is technical – without a tool like PLACE3S, scenario planning can be complex and intimidating, and can devolve either into planning by guesswork (with little or no technical information because it is simply too costly and impractical to create), or the reverse, a simple accounting of numeric data.

Like any tool, PLACE3S must be used properly to achieve the desired results. The following tutorial will guide you through the initial basic functions of the PLACE3S program.