Positive visions for guiding urban transformations toward sustainable futures

Much of the discourse around urban and global futures tends to be dystopian with visions of environmental and societal collapse, and business as usual forecasts that challenge planning and policymaking for more optimistic urban futures. More recently, research and practice demonstrate the role of positives visions that allow exploration of alternative and desirable futures in developing positive plans and delivering desirable outcomes for cities. We review the role of positive visioning and associated future scenarios for transformations that can guide decision-making for plausible, desirable, and sustainable urban futures. We discuss key challenges and tensions in visioning processes and suggest paths forward for positive visioning as a key tool for resilience and sustainability planning and to guide implementation.