Preparing for an Uncertain Future: South Westphalia City Scenarios 2030

For example, because of the demographic change, the fast pace of technological advance, and changing citizen habits (e.g. in buying behavior), cities face fundamental challenges and lack orientation in approaching their (digital) transformation. Especially cities in rural areas struggle in this situation which makes it necessary to reconsider predominant structures in city management. The use of scenario management can support decision-making processes by broadening the perspective through thinking in future scenarios. This paper elaborates on a scenario planning project that was conducted with 25 cities from South Westphalia (Germany) in 2020. Eight scenarios have been developed in a multi-stakeholder process with participants from different city domains. Both, the process of scenario planning and the developed city scenarios for 2030, aim to support city managers and other city stakeholders expand their focus, triggering a future-oriented examination of cities.