By Amy Evans, AICP

It’s inevitable – a new year gets people and organizations thinking about what the next 12 months or more will look like. For the planning profession, which is tasked with creating inclusive plans for navigating endlessly variable circumstances, constant change is a particular challenge. And, of course, change comes in many forms. In 2023 change ranges from new technologies like blockchain, the Metaverse, and space agriculture to complex social changes affecting how we shop, work, use social media, and perceive gender.

To help planners assess what is in store, APA has issued a 2023 Trends Report for Planners. For a sneak peak, let’s look at APA’s take on the integration of technology into the delivery of government services: in short, the digital era is here. Planners should be looking at ways to provide digital, on-demand services – with significant caveats: Increased reliance on digital services must be paired with policies that preserve resident trust, actions to ensure digital services can be accessed equitably, and responsible use of the data generated by these services.

This assessment, along with analyses of 18 other trends and signals, are organized by urgency: what we need to act on now, what we should be preparing for, and areas we would do well to learn about and watch. This is the second annual report developed by a partnership between the APA Foresight team and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Year-to-year monitoring of trends can be found on APA’s Trend Universe page.