ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a selection of those methods of research and forecasting the future most relevant to the task of environmental sustainability planning. A city that converts derelict industrial land to urban habitat would appear to be making a substantial contribution to the expectation of environmental sustainability as opposed to the city that rehabilitates that site for community development. Both realities evidence a political commitment and require the allocation of resources to maintain. The purpose of futures methodologies is to systematically explore, create, and test both possible and desirable futures to improve how decisions are made and to look comprehensively at the totality of the decision problem. In an information age, the perception of time is more expansive and forecasting shifts to the question of what is possible or desirable. Futures methodologies become a useful means to explore this expanse by identifying what we don’t know but need to know in order to make intelligent decisions.
