Foresight for Cities: How Local Authorities Anticipate Change
As part of the 2025 European Week of Regions and Cities, the European Committee of the Regions hosts a session on "Foresight for Cities", showcasing how local authorities across Europe use foresight to prepare for the future.
Setting the stage, Jelena Drenjanin, Member of the Municipal Council of Huddinge (Sweden), opens the session by describing foresight as "the art and science of looking ahead to inform better decisions today." She underlines that foresight is not a luxury but a necessity for local and regional authorities, the level where early signals of change are first detected. Foresight helps turn signals into choices and supports more proactive, resilient policymaking. She stresses the importance of citizen involvement and co-design to ensure faster implementation and stronger ownership.
Representatives from Munich, Breda, Kraków, and Hauts-de-France share concrete examples of foresight in action:
- The City of Munich (Germany) explains how urban forecasting underpins long-term planning in Germany's third-largest city. Population and infrastructure forecasts feed directly into digital development plans. Munich is now exploring how artificial intelligence can further enhance urban foresight.
- The Municipality of Breda (Netherlands) presents its foresight team, which uses megatrend analysis and participatory dialogue to prepare input for the city's next political cycle, making long-term thinking a standard part of decision-making.
- The Kraków Festival Office (Poland) showcases the "Wesoła District" project – transforming a former hospital site into a hub for social innovation. Using horizon scanning, scenario building, and backcasting, citizens prototype tangible solutions for the district's future.
- Agence Hauts-de-France 2020-2040 (France) describes the region's participatory scenario-building work on revitalising city centres. Creative formats, such as foresight comics, make these visions accessible to wider audiences.
Rounding out the session, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre presents the Future-Oriented Policy-Making project, which will provide practical guides, training materials, and a community network to help public administrations develop futures-oriented mindsets.
The session highlights a clear message: foresight enables municipalities to anticipate change, engage citizens, and shape resilient, future-ready solutions.