Rapid Environmental Planning Methodology: Developing Strategies for the Planners’ Education

Rapid assessments are useful methods for engaging stakeholders, standardizing monitoring activities and supporting later planning stages. This article proposes to extend rapid assessment methods into ‘rapid environmental planning’ and to use it for the education of planning professionals. For the assessment stage, the pressure–state–response model is used, with a participatory valuation of the ecosystem services through supply and demand profile and future trends. The stage of scenario building includes the XLRM methodology (externalities, actions, metrics and relationships), the trends and evaluation of proposals and uncertainties, as well as the formulation of timelines and narratives. The propositional stage included intervention projects, zoning of land use and occupation guidelines. The methodology was evaluated as a didactic resource for undergraduate teaching in a watershed in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo (Brazil). The results indicated a high educational potential for the students as well as the potential effectiveness of this planning method.