Scenarios in Regional Planning – Theory and Practice in Poland

It is important to recognise future conditions in planning because it primes future actions. Scenarios are useful prognostic tools, especially when the social and institutional behaviour plays a crucial role. The aims of the paper are: (1) to indicate the roles and the place of scenarios in the strategic plan building process; (2) to analyse and evaluate the application of scenarios in regional planning in Poland; (3) to transpose the research results on scenarios in local planning for their application in regional planning. There are a few documents in which scenarios are applied: three strategies for regional development and two spatial development plans for regions. The author analysed the scenarios in all of those documents and offered some recommendations transposing the effects of previous research from local to regional planning.