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APA National Resources: Applied Research Resources 2024

A variety of resources are accessible to APA National members via APA National’s Knowledge Center. These resources cover contemporary planning issues and can enhance the overall knowledge base of APA members as well as the individuals and organizations we collaborate with.

APA National’s applied research program sponsors projects related to contemporary challenges associated with community growth and change. The program draws on the expertise of the APA’s in house research staff, APA members, and partner organizations to identify, evaluate, and disseminate solutions to these challenges. The program’s National Centers for Planning include several entities oriented around specific planning issues. These entities include the Hazards Planning Center that focuses on research supporting hazard mitigation, post-disaster recovery, and climate change adaptation. Program staff also support the research needs of APA National’s programs such as the Sustaining Places Initiative and Water & Planning Network. Resource materials resulting from these projects are available to members via APA National’s Applied Research Portal. These materials include best practice guidance manuals, project reports, and webinars.

APA supported projects that chapter members may be interested in include:

  • Planning for State Resilience: A 50-State Breakdown. With support from The Pew Charitable Trusts, APA has analyzed resilience governance approaches across all 50 states.
  • Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard for Heat. The Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard™ (PIRS™) for Heat is an approach that communities can use to analyze how heat mitigation policies are integrated into different plans and to identify opportunities to better target heat mitigation policies in high heat risk areas.
  • Planning the Urban Forest: Ecology, Economy, and Community Development. This report, prepared by the APA in collaboration with the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) and American Forests (AF), and supported by the U.S. Forest Service, addresses the need for planners to adopt a green infrastructure approach and presents the technical means to incorporate trees into planning.

The applied research program is interested in collaborating with organizations with similar or complementary research interests. Collaboration with the applied research program presents opportunities for research findings to reach the APA’s diverse membership body. Interested individuals and organizations can reach the applied research program at research@planning.org.