Participatory Planning Tools

To successfully co-create a sustainable and regenerative future, we need to "get organised!". We need to cooperate, collaborate, effectively joining forces to align and move in the same direction. At the same time, dynamism and diversity encourage synergy and creativity for developing "outside the box" solutions and inherent motivation.

This grassroots, non-linear planning from the"bottom up" is vital for visioning, participatory democracy and collaborative planning and design. When combined with some centralised or "top down" support and resourcing, these tools for participatory planning yield incredible power for positive change!

The Planning Web 

This award winning planning tool provides an effective participatory process and integrative planning framework suitable for government at all levels, local and regional communities, businesses and other organisations. Working together, groups are quickly able to create their sustainability vision, goals and strategic action plan through a kinaesthetic process. This is followed by a working group developing an implementation plan, including timelines, priorities, partnerships and responsibilities based on the collective work. (© Peter Cuming 1996)

Dealing With Our Own Situation (DWOOS)

This award winning model for community and stakeholder engagement and decision-making was developed through large-scale infrastructure projects.  It involves a representative working group process that can be engaged to identify key issues, develop solutions and options supporting the planning and design phases and to assist in implementation and review. A key component of DWOOS is an evaluation kit and scoring process enabling a series of different project options to be compared according to sustainability criteria developed with all key stakeholders. (© Sustainable Futures Australia 2000)

Working Together Model

This participatory model helps identify key groupings of stakeholders that should be engaged in sustainability initiatives, and at what levels this should occur from the local to regional level. In this model, the role of council or other central organisation is facilitator and coordinator. (© Sustainable Futures Australia 2005)