Digital Twins — digital representations of the built environment that can be augmented with real-time information flows — are an emerging tool that holds great promise for the practice of planning. But developing an effective Digital Twin requires starting with the fundamentals: what, why, and how. In this webinar, you’ll learn about the benefits, standards, and capabilities of Digital Twins, illustrated by uses & case studies.

It's a REVOLUTION! The Vision for Historical Philadelphia establishes a design framework to re-imagine the primary public space of Old City Philadelphia – its streets! Learn how new street design will support equitable mobility, placemaking, historical interpretation, and economic development.

Unprecedented federal resources have been made available to states and localities to plan for and implement climate adaptation and resilience solutions. This course explores trends and best practices utilized by different levels of government resulting in improved outcomes.

Boosting the supply, availability, and diversity of housing options is essential to expanding opportunity and affordability for all. Creating livable and age-friendly communities requires reforms that allow for new housing options. APA, AARP, and the National League of Cities have made housing opportunity and zoning reform a key priority.

Fast moving legislation has created challenges for planners to understand new requirements for multi-modal funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure legislation. This Case Study Learn reviews two of the primary programs of interest to planners: Safe Street & Roads for All (SS4A) & Reconnecting Communities.

Communities are at risk of being affected by an increased threat and frequency of natural disasters. This presentation explores proactive stormwater management, infrastructure resiliency to prepare planners to tackle climate challenges of the future.

Food insecurity hides in plain sight in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. How can one food pantry find land and provide fresh and culturally appropriate produce to its largely Hispanic clientele when the surrounding community is largely developed?

An economic development coalition in Alaska is developing the mariculture industry with a $49 million federal grant. Learn how this coalition was able to successfully bring in so much funding and how this project will advance equity.

The Turks and Caicos Islands adopted the first National Physical Development Plan since 1984. Learn about intricacies of large scale, multidisciplinary planning for rapidly changing natural and built environments in times of change, uncertainty, and shifting ideologies.

Reimagine the nature of historic preservation that recognizes underrepresented culture, people, and places. Learn ways to engage communities to identify, celebrate and preserve sites that are important to a community’s story.

As designers and planners, we ignore people with disabilities at the risk of alienating the people that public spaces are meant to serve. Listen to three case studies that illustrate best practices built around inclusion and accessibility.

Learn why our cities and regions must build eco-socially sustainable, “green” housing that is affordable at all income levels, what this looks like, and how to get it built through community-based strategies for designing, approving, and funding in diverse localities.

If zoning is a language, then every zoning ordinance is its own dialect. By mapping standardized zoning data across thousands of jurisdictions, the National Zoning Atlas provides legibility to those seeking to understand zoning trends that transcend jurisdictional boundaries.

Electric vehicles are a hot topic, but is your community ready to support them? Our panel of experts turn your battery "range anxiety" into "range confidence" with real world case studies and planning approaches to enhance sustainability and equity.

In planning, city digital twins can be used for experimentation and simulation, to test policy options, to enhance cross-departmental collaboration, and to improve community engagement. Learn how to get started with examples from Columbus, Georgia, and Boston.

We already know the technical solutions to climate change but are caught in a loop of constant analysis to identify the “perfect” local actions. This presentation explores how strategies can be pursued locally and how to prioritize action.

Integrating climate science into local planning practice can help communities adapt to changing conditions. When combined with equity considerations, adaptation planning prepares communities for greater extremes, including flooding. Learn about practices to equitably implement climate change adaptation planning.

Communities are facing acute infrastructure needs to provide safe and reliable transportation with limited public funding available. It is critical for planners and local authorities to understand the procedures and approaches for securing and leveraging federal support to make changes.

Top officials from the Biden Administration discuss these initiatives and why they see housing planning and zoning reform as vital to the success of the infrastructure law.

View five technological advancement examples designed to emphasize the use of international smart technology in planning.

With the unprecedented levels of federal, private and philanthropic funds currently available, how does one create a grant program that not only makes awards but genuinely supports projects with catalytic impact, and ensures those projects are completed successfully?

Removing or preventing a highway in a city is often a fight – and never a fair one! Learn the language of highway removal, tactics used by state DOT’s and how to present winning arguments, and available resources.

Open Zoning is democratizing zoning codes, allowing anyone to access them as simple visuals for any property or city in seconds, crowdsourcing new ways forward for the bottom-up response to the housing crisis.

The Johnston Town Center, a public-private partnership opened August 2021, facilitated by city led acquisitions and investments in a vibrant “downtown” gathering space with public amenities/art, surrounded by thriving commercial businesses.

As in previous years, the 2024 Trend Report features a list of over 100 existing, emerging, and potential future trends that the APA Foresight team, together with our Trend Scouting Foresight Community, identified as relevant to planning. The trends are structured within three timeframes (Act Now, Prepare, Learn and Watch), which indicate the urgency of planners’ action.

This webinar will explore key skills needed to integrate empathy and compassion in planning practice. It will focus on deepening planners' awareness of and practice of skills that support them in honoring their own identity (and stories) while also respecting and valuing the varied identities, stories, and experiences of the community, leading to relationships that can advance equitable and sustainable planning.

Equitable strategies don’t guarantee representative data, so it’s critical to know who you're reaching and who you’re not. Here's how one community adopted an approach that has resulted in 20,000+ residents engaging from all corners of the community.

Georgia Tech's urban design studio partners with 2 Presbyterian churches, a Baptist Church, and a Synagogue to conduct deep-dive explorations into opportunities, challenges, and realities that communities of faith face when they get involved in the City’s affordable housing scene.

Equity! Inclusion! Antiracism! These are the ingredients of progressive place-based efforts. Learn how three distinct organizations in DC, Maryland, and Virginia are developing their equity practice for place-based initiatives in one of the most diverse regions in the country.

During this unprecedented pandemic, forgotten urban neighborhoods suffered disproportionately – a stark reminder that cities aren’t fair. Can we continue planning for communities-of-color using pre-pandemic models? Trenton and Philadelphia in partnerships with respective medical institutions demonstrate a new way.