Service
Foresight and Future City Visioning
Overview
Cities do not fail because they lack plans; they fail because they misread the future.
RSUP supports governments, institutions and major development entities in anticipating structural change and translating uncertainty into strategic direction. Our foresight work addresses long-term transformations — climate transition, demographic shifts, technological disruption, geopolitical realignment and evolving economic systems — with artificial intelligence as both a driver and instrument of change, shaping new forms of governance, decision-making and urban operations. These dynamics are integrated into coherent urban trajectories.
This work builds on Jochen Rabe’s role as Professor for Urban Resilience and Digitalisation at the Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF), TU Berlin — Berlin’s interdisciplinary excellence research cluster comprising approximately 50 professorships across digital technologies, governance, design and societal transformation — where digital futures, including AI-enabled systems, were examined not as isolated technologies, but as structural forces reshaping urban systems.
Future visioning, in this sense, is not narrative branding. It is disciplined anticipation grounded in research and institutional feasibility.
Approach
RSUP’s foresight methodology combines systemic analysis with structured imagination.
Three principles guide our work:
Scenario-Based Strategic Framing: We develop alternative future scenarios grounded in demographic, technological, environmental and economic drivers. These scenarios test policy assumptions and reveal structural vulnerabilities, enabling decision-makers to stress-test long-term strategies.
Path Dependency and Trajectory Design: Early decisions create lock-in effects. We analyse how infrastructure investment, governance structures and spatial consolidation shape future optionality, clarifying which pathways expand adaptive capacity and which constrain it.
Institutional Readiness and Strategic Coherence: Foresight is meaningful only when embedded in governance systems. We assess institutional capacity, regulatory alignment and fiscal feasibility to ensure that future visions can evolve into durable policy frameworks.
Our work combines expert consultation, quantitative modelling, cross-sector diagnostics and structured workshops to connect long-term anticipation with near-term decision-making.
Outcomes
RSUP’s work delivers structured resilience capacity rather than isolated action plans. Our strategies generate tangible outcomes across several dimensions:
Comprehensive Resilience Frameworks: The Tbilisi Resilience Strategy established a coherent roadmap for managing both acute shocks and long-term systemic stresses. The framework translated resilience priorities into clear policy directions, investment logic and governance measures, strengthening the city’s ability to act under uncertainty.
Strengthened Governance and Cross-Sector Coordination: By addressing resilience across departments and sectors, RSUP’s approach reduces institutional fragmentation. Clear coordination mechanisms and shared strategic priorities enable more consistent and effective implementation.
Enhanced Risk Identification and Mitigation Capacity: Through structured diagnostics and stakeholder consultation, cities gain a clearer understanding of exposure, vulnerability and interdependency. This allows for prioritised mitigation measures and more informed allocation of resources.
Integration of Sustainability and Adaptation Pathways: Resilience strategies are aligned with long-term environmental and socio-economic objectives, embedding climate adaptation, infrastructure performance and social stability within broader development trajectories.
The result is strengthened strategic agency: cities better equipped to anticipate disruption, manage complexity and maintain continuity of public value in the face of evolving risks.
