What are Scenario Indicators?

We believe that meaningful plans are ones you can both implement and monitor; indicators are very helpful tools for creating and evaluating scenarios, and in the future, for monitoring and evaluating a plan’s performance.

Indicators are the outputs of evaluation criteria which are are created near the beginning of the scenario planning process. They generally reflect the guiding principles as well as previously adopted community goals. Indicators may also be related to new or emerging community goals or issues: such as transit access, housing costs, or air quality. Baseline indicators typically include those related to fiscal impacts, housing affordability, financial feasibility, jobs-to-housing balance, land consumption, transportation, resource usage, and other sustainability indicators.

Using Envision Tomorrow, alternative scenarios are tested and refined, and then compared and evaluated based on their indicator performance. Indicators enable Envision Tomorrow users to tie the scenario results to the community values and guiding principles as well as communicate the benefits, impacts and tradeoffs of different policy choices and investments. In practice, this approach not only allows the public to visualize their region’s future, final plans created using our scenario planning process will come with a dashboard of indicators so policymakers can monitor their progress and make adjustments along the way, in concert with established guiding principles and long-term vision.

Although the exact range of indicators will be determined during each unique planning process, Envision Tomorrow is packaged with the following:

• Urbanized Acres

• Infill Development or Redevelopment

• Cost of New Infrastructure

• Building Value and Revenue

• Housing Affordability and Demand

• Housing Mix

• Parking Spaces Costs

• Jobs-to-Housing Ratio

• Distribution and Employment Space

• Regional Density

• Connectivity

• Urban Parks per Capita

• Loss of Agricultural Land and Rangeland

• Acres of Impervious Surface

• Impervious Cover in Special Areas (e.g. Aquifers)

• Building Energy Use

• Carbon Emissions

• Internal Water Consumption

• Landscaping Water Consumption

• Solid Waste Production

• Waste Water Production

• Enhanced ROI

• Balanced Housing

• Building Energy Consumption App