Symbiotic Planning for Urban Futures

Symbiotic Planning for Urban Futures: A Paradigm for Human-AI Co-Creation presents a framework for harnessing artificial intelligence in urban planning while preserving democratic control over urban futures. The book establishes symbiotic planning as a falsifiable paradigm grounded in five technology-neutral axioms and operationalized through governed friction, in which AI acts as a governed co-creator across the CORE framework: Collaboration, Options, Refinement, and Execution. It shows how planners can guide AI systems to generate options, support evidence-based refinement, translate values into constraints, and communicate context and equity considerations to decision-makers. By treating equity as a primary design constraint, the book offers a practical foundation for more transparent, accountable, and democratic urban governance in an algorithmic age.

This book will be of value to urban planners, civic technologists, policymakers, researchers, and students seeking to understand how AI can support public-sector decision-making without displacing human judgment or public accountability.

• Introduces symbiotic planning as a falsifiable paradigm for integrating AI into urban
  planning under democratic governance
• Presents the CORE framework to show how AI’s role can shift across collaboration, option generation, refinement, and execution under planner-in-the-loop oversight
• Demonstrates applications through domain-specific studies and practical tools, including Civic Evidence Dossiers, Authorization Forums, Equity Gates, and a 100-Day Starter Kit