Urban Resilience: The Sustainable Futures Scenarios approach

The Biosphere Futures project welcomes you to the first in a new webinar series on social-ecological scenario planning.

After helping more than a dozen cities prepare for the challenges of climate change, members of the Urban Resilience to Extremes (UREx) sustainability research network will share what they've learned about scenario planning in an uncertain century. A truly stellar panel of UREx experts will share tips, stories about their greatest hits (and a few misses), and some techniques that you can use to collaboratively imagine futures that surprise participants and audiences, help them orient themselves in a changing world, and inspire them to create change.

Panelists

Marta Berbés-Blázquez is an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo's School of Planning, studying sustainable urban futures, resilience, and environmental justice.

Elizabeth M. Cook is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at Barnard College, specializing in urban ecosystem science with interdisciplinary expertise. Her research focuses on future urban sustainability and human-environment feedbacks, using transdisciplinary frameworks and mixed methods to study cities in North and Latin America.

Nancy B. Grimm is a Regents Professor and Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Ecology in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, specializing in ecosystem ecology with a focus on urban and stream ecosystems. Her recent research concerns urban resilience to extreme events and co-production of future scenarios with urban decision-makers and communities.

David M. Iwaniec is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Futures at Georgia State University's Urban Studies Institute, specializing in sustainable urban systems, focusing on anticipatory governance, climate adaptation, and resilience. He leads the Center for Urban Transformations and Sustainable Futures Lab, integrating research and engagement to explore transformative pathways toward urban sustainability and resilience.

Lelani Mannetti is an Assistant Professor at the Urban Studies Institute at Georgia State University. Her research focuses on urban sustainability, resilience, and transformative governance.

Timon McPhearson is professor and director of the Urban Systems Lab at The New School, and a research fellow at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Stockholm Resilience Centre, and Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics.