Scenario 360

Real-Time Modeling
Scenario 360 dynamic analysis lets you ask “what-if…?” questions about alternative planning strategies and future events, then get answers in real-time as you experiment and discuss.

Dynamic Analysis Engine™
The unique Scenario 360 Dynamic Analysis Engine lets you do geospatial modeling of the effects of any potential plan. Study housing, transportation, environment, economics, sustainability, and much more. Choose from more than 100 built-in indicator models, or customize and create your own.

Dynamic Analysis and Modeling

Get the information you need, when you need it

Scenario 360’s powerful, versatile, and unique Dynamic Analysis Engine is perfect for planning decisions

Good planning decisions are based on good models: How much will this planning approach cost? What will it do to water quality? How much housing will it provide?

With Scenario 360, you get immediate answers to those kinds of questions. It’s done with formula-based calculations running in an open modeling environment. Scenario 360 models are:

• Dynamic – you get constant updates as you experiment with scenarios or plans
• Transparent – anyone can view, edit, or share the formula logic
• Open – share inputs and outputs with external models like Excel spreadsheets or travel demand models (TDMs)
• Spatial – distances, overlaps, “nearest,” and all kinds of place-related calculations
• Versatile – use built-in planning models, or write your own using a library of over 90 formula functions, with no software programming required

Thinking of a particular planning application, like build-out, suitability assessment, or impact analysis? Scenario 360 also has a collection of easy-to-use Decision Tools (also known as planning apps) to speed you along.

Scenario Analysis

Understand your choices

Scenario 360 allows you to create, analyze, and work with multiple alternatives for the future of a place—all in real time.

Scenarios are an effective method for making informed planning decisions. Before you write a plan or start implementation, you consider several alternatives—called scenarios—and study the pros and cons of each. From there, you can refine your ideas to choose the best course of action.

Dynamic analysis lets you work with scenarios in real time.

Ask “what-if…?” questions about alternative planning strategies or uncertain future events. Try adding infrastructure or changing zoning, and see what happens. This iterative process, sometimes called geodesign, is perfect for early planning discussions and group meetings.

Scenario 360 provides a powerful array of tools for creating scenarios:

• Freehand sketch directly on the map
• Paint existing parcels or other features with potential new land uses, zoning, place types, and more: premade or create your own
• Clone building models or other features to create proposals at the site scale
• Vary assumptions about modeling inputs between scenarios with easy-to-use slider bar controls
• Calculate build-out potential with an advanced, wizard-based tool
• Apply computer-driven allocation algorithms to generate rule-based growth patterns

Analyzing and comparing scenarios is taken care of for you:

• One Scenario 360 project (“analysis”) handles many scenarios at once
• Models are automatically applied to all scenarios, unless you want to make scenario-specific changes
• Side-by-side maps, charts, and results tables make it easy to compare

The 360 Indicators Wizard is meant to give you a comprehensive, well rounded set of standard planning measurements (indicators) related to your study area. The actual number of indicators generated will depend on your settings, but 101 are potentially available. Topic areas cover land use, demographics, transportation, recreation, environment, housing, and employment.

Common Impacts Wizard automatically creates GIS-based impact analyses commonly associated with growth and development. You can instantly start to see some of the most commonly used indicators of economic, environmental, and social outcomes associated with alternative growth scenarios. The analyses created include everything you need: formulas, indicators, charts, reports, and variable assumptions with default values to serve as a starting point.

Here are the impacts the wizard can potentially create, depending on the information you provide, and the impacts you ask for:

• Auto emission
• Commercial energy use
• Commercial floor area
• Commercial jobs
• Commercial jobs-to-housing ratio
• Commercial tax revenue
• Distance to places of interest
• Residential water use
• Labor force
• Population
• Residential dwelling units
• Residential energy use
• Residential tax revenue
• School kids
• Sensitive lands impacts
• Vehicle trips per day

The Custom Impacts Wizard sets up analysis models for impacts that are important to you but that are not covered in the Common Impacts Wizard or elsewhere. You specify the type of analysis you want – counts, sums, classifications – and the parameters you want to use. The wizard takes it from there, setting up the formulas, attributes, indicators, assumptions and charts you can use to see how your impact is affected by potential decisions you might make. The impact models supported by the Custom Impacts Wizards cover some of the most commonly used simple structures. For example, you can:

• Count features based on their location, such as counting all the trees in a park or counting all the septic tanks near a river
• Count items in features, such as counting all the chimneys in a group of houses
• Add amounts per feature attribute, such as amount of water needed to irrigate a polygon layer representing farm fields
• Classify and count features based on one of their existing attribute values, such as calculating how many roads are local, collector, and arterial, respectively
• Classify and count features based on their proximity to other features, such as counting how many septic tanks are near each of four rivers

Land-Use Designer allows you to study the impacts of alternate land-use plans with just a few clicks of the mouse. A special dialog helps you choose pre-defined or custom land-use models. Once they have been created, land-use models provide an easy way to create land-use scenarios and impact analyses simply by sketching on the map. Each model specifies the name and particular characteristics of a given land use, such as building density and resource utilization rates. When you apply a land use to a feature on the map, the feature takes on all the specified characteristics, and corresponding impacts are calculated automatically.

Optimizer helps you choose the best combination of features to satisfy certain goals, such as which parcels to conserve given a finite conservation budget. Its advanced, super-fast Modified Simplex Method algorithm allows you to work with large numbers of features in short times, even on an ordinary desktop computer. (This premium feature is available only with CommunityViz Professional licenses.)

Suitability Wizard lets you create site suitability or desirability analyses via an easy-to-use, step-by-step wizard. Just specify the factors you want to consider – like proximity to roads and overlap with floodplains, for example – and the wizard sets up a complete analysis for you. Once the analysis has been created, you can color code your map according to which sites are most suitable, and you can dynamically change the weighting of each factor and see the results.

Allocator Wizard helps determine where growth is most likely to occur over time. It uses the classic supply-and-demand approach, allocating new growth to available building locations sequentially over time, using either strict-order or probability-based models. (This premium feature is available only with CommunityViz Professional licenses.)

Allocator 5 is a sophisticated land-use allocation modelling (LUAM) tool for regional planners that models patterns of spatial growth over time. (This premium feature is available only with CommunityViz Professional licenses.)

Build-Out Wizard performs all the work necessary for a build-out analysis, which shows the “capacity” of your land based on all the commercial and/or residential building allowed by current land-use regulations. This very popular CommunityViz feature supports numeric, spatial, and even 3D visual build-out analysis, and it works with everything from a simple land-use map to complex zoning codes – include as much or as little data as you want.

TimeScope™ lets you look at incremental changes year-by-year. Buildings and roads appear on the landscape; infrastructure capacity fills up; land-uses change; and impacts update – all according to rules and assumptions you set. Results can even be used with the Timeline in Google™ Earth.