Telling the best stories: The Future Bristol Project

On the Sarasota 2050 Comp Plan page, Alex Coe posted a link to an interesting project a colleague of hers is working on. It sets out visually two distinct scenarios for the future of the British city of Bristol. Each scenario has benefits and perhaps some drawbacks, but very different emphases. The visual images incorporate information and even opportunities for ideas to be voted up or down:

Future Bristol Scenario X

Future Bristol Scenario Y

The key goal of the exercise is to imagine what Bristol could be like in 2050 if it managed to achieve an 80% reduction in carbon emissions. (More about that here.)

THE PROJECT

This project seeks to engage the public in what it means for Bristol to be a "low carbon city", enabling everyone to have their say and help shape the future that we want to see. The aims are to:

• Engage the public and raise awareness about what a low carbon future means
• Find out how people feel about two different potential futures, which features are desirable and which we want to avoid
• Start a public discussion about how Bristol can become a low carbon city, and gather opinions, thoughts and new ideas 

Part of the value of the exercise is how it renders the problem accessible and communicates it visually. On Future Bristol's Twitter feed one finds:

"Those who tell the best stories own the future."