Indicative Scenario Planning Projects

Project Descriptions

Part Two: Public Sector Projects

Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) . The JPDO is the acronym for the Joint Planning and Development Office for the Next Generation Air Transportation System. The JPDO was born out of 2003 legislation stipulating that an integrated plan be developed under the auspices of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NASA to ensure that the Next Generation Air Transportation System meets the nation’s needs for air transportation safety, security, mobility, efficiency and capacity.

The government contracted with the Futures Strategy Group to support the long-term planning requirements of the JPDO under the direction of the Futures Working Group (FWG), comprised of the Departments of Transportation, Commerce and Homeland Security, in addition to NASA and the FAA. To this end, FSG directed the development of five global scenarios for 2025, with the ultimate objective of using the scenarios to develop a set of long-term strategies to guide the actions of the U.S. air transportation enterprise.

A distinctive feature of the FWG work was the critical role played by external stakeholders in the air transportation system. Stakeholders from government, industry and academia were invited to participate in two four-day workshops to develop air space transportation strategies necessitated by the conditions described in each of the five scenarios. Using the outputs of the workshops, the FWG synthesized these strategies and produced a set of 11 common or “robust” strategies that promise to work across the entire scenario space.

The FWG strategies (and related implementation initiatives) were a direct input into the 2004 National Plan for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS). As of October 2006, many of the critical insights and initiatives that originally surfaced in the FWG scenario planning work are being refined and advanced in the work of a new NGATS Institute. The Institute oversees the work of eight JPDO Integrated Product Teams: Airport Infrastructure, Security, Agile Air Traffic System, Shared Situational Awareness, Safety Management, Environment, Weather and Global Harmonization.

Additional information on the FWG and the work of the JPDO can be found at www.jpdo.aero

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