Urban & Community Planning
“The Resilient Planning Process is a wonderful assessment methodology for any community or organization considering their future. The old ways of planning will not work in the 21st Century. The Resilient Planning Process is inclusive, thoughtful and considerate of emerging, existing and future conditions. I am pleased that the Blackstone Valley has so many organizations involved in this type of process.”
Dr. Robert Billington, Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, Rhode Island, USA
The Necessary End of 20th Century Planning
We live in a time major transitions. At the global scale, we are witnessing conditions that are now and will continue to impact every nation, community and individual on the planet. Rising sea level, global warming, Peak Oil are some of the broader issues that directly relate to drastic increases in the prices of fuel, food, and insurance that have the potential to completely alter our current economic systems. These conditions bring with them major environmental and health impacts. They also provide new opportunities that we haven’t even thought about yet (i.e. alternative energy sources/technology, new economies). But in order to deal with these and many other immediate and emergent conditions, communities and organizations must possess an understanding of those conditions, capabilities and the networks at play, not only at their scale of operation but at multiple scales above and below them. This level of understanding can only come from a process that meaningfully engages key stakeholders in a whole systems dialogue that embraces the complexity and diversity of the community or organization. It is through this engagement that stakeholders become not just participants but champions and custodians of the projects and initiatives identified during the process.
Just like a ‘good’ engineer must fully understand the conditions within which she is designing, planners must likewise understand the conditions, resources and capabilities of the place for which they are planning, at multiple scales. Planners are the designers/engineers of places. Like the good site engineer goes through a thorough analysis of the conditions of a given site, the planner must do an even more in depth analysis before ever even considering development of a plan. Unfortunately, most planning today is very reactionary based upon past events and compartmentalized data. The thinking being used to solve the major problems of the day is the very same thinking that created most of them.
Resilience means the ability to withstand or recover readily from difficult conditions. We use the term because we believe it best describes what we are aspiring to create: places and organizations that are resilient. Most of the planners today are trying to achieve this goal of resilience but they lack the processes required to fully understand (or at least more fully understand) the conditions and capabilities at multiple scales that affect the complex adaptive system that they call their community. Traditional visioning exercises and community charrettes are tools that, as currently utilized fall drastically short of reaching the level of understanding required to plan for resilience.
As already stated, this is a critical point in our history. Communities and organisations that best understand the complexities inherent in the conditions that are unfolding before them will be the ones most likely to survive and thrive in the years ahead. Those that do not can’t possibly react fast enough or with the informed decisions necessary to avoid massive disruptions.
How We Can Help
Resilience Futures offers a facilitated process that has been effectively implemented in urban and suburban communities as well as organisations. The process uses a whole systems approach. Understanding of the economy, ecology, knowledge, culture, social and built environment as interdependent elements of the whole system is developed through a progressively participatory process involving key stakeholders (usually not engaged in traditional methods). As a former Community Planning and Economic Development Director, I see this process as the way planning should and must be done. Its multi-scale, multi-disciplinary approach allows the process to be engaged from any one or more of the interdependent elements. But regardless of the point of engagement, the whole systems process is engaged. Check out the How We Can Help page for more information or contact Fred Presley directly.
20th century planning stifles the creativity and innovation required by communities and organisations throughout the world. If your community or organisation is ready for 21st century thinking, 21st century understanding and 21st century planning and action, then we have the process and the team to guide you.
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