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Urban planning often faces challenges stemming from legal rigidity and institutional fragmentation, which hinder its ability to address complex and uncertain future scenarios. In this Viewpoint we introduce Big Picture Planning (BPP), a dynamic bundle of strategically guided foresight plans that supplements statutory comprehensive plans across multiple time horizons. Our argument was developed in the case of Huntsville’s (AL) Big Picture. BPP consists of three actions and processes: strategy development, creation of project and theme bundles, and contextual re-evaluation and backward influence of the futures. We highlight the value of BPP in fostering flexible and adaptable project bundles. BPP recognizes the complex influences that flow between past experiences and future possibilities, acknowledges decision makers and stakeholders, and respects the diversity of urban contexts and timelines. Building on Huntsville’s Big Picture, we advance a model of overlapping timelines and varying contexts of each city component and apply theory to real-life planning settings and planning education.
Ouf et al. (Tue,) studied this question.