What is a Scenario?

An analysis contains one or more scenarios. Each scenario represents a different decision-making alternative. The first scenario in your analysis is called the base scenario. It can represent existing conditions, the primary proposal under evaluation, business as usual, or the first of several alternatives you wish to compare in an analysis.

What is an Assumption?

An assumption is a value that is used as input to an analysis. They are usually changeable and apply to an entire scenario. Assumptions can be a way to express subjective inputs, such as how much weighting to give to a particular community value like open space or economic development.

What is an Indicator?

Indicators are impact or performance measures that help people choose alternatives that best match their objectives or desired outcomes. An indicator is a calculated value that represents the impacts or outcomes of a scenario. An indicator might be used to evaluate costs, revenues, average household size, “community benefit”, or total daily auto trips.

What is an Attribute?

A piece of information describing a map feature. The attributes of a census tract, for example, might include its area, population, and average per capita income. Attributes can also be a characteristic of a geographic feature described by numbers, characters, images, and CAD drawings. For example, the attributes of a well might include depth and gallons per minute.

What is an Alert?

An alert is used to monitor values during analysis and report if specific conditions occur. Alerts may be displayed as a chart with (colored) target bars, an alert message, or as a feature color on a map. An alert may be associated with an assumption, a dynamic attribute, or an indicator.

What is a Common Impacts Parameter?

A common impacts parameter is a piece of information or setting you entered into the Common Impacts Wizard. Examples include the name of the buildings layer used as the basis for the analysis, and the number of dwelling units per building.

What is a Common Impacts Reference?

Common impacts references are potentially useful informational resources relating to the default assumption values used in the common impacts analysis.

Caution and Disclaimer: The Common Impacts decision tool uses formulas and default settings that are intended to serve only as a starting point for further analysis. The impacts displayed are not necessarily correct and they may not pertain to or describe local conditions. In some places, references and their publication dates are provided for the default values and/or and formulas used. While these references are believed to be reliable, they are provided only for your convenience and may or may not be correct. Any decisions you make should be based on your own research and your own analysis and not on the results automatically generated by this tool.

How do I turn on active content for this report?

Scenario 360 reports may contain “active content.” This includes buttons that allow you to expand or collapse individual sections of the report, and information boxes that appear when you hover your mouse over a chart.

Click the Expand icon next to a heading to see the full contents of that section. Click the Collapse icon to show only the heading. You can expand or collapse all sections at once by clicking “Expand All” or “Collapse All” at the bottom of the report.

To view chart descriptions, hover your mouse over the chart.

Active content uses Javascript code that may be blocked by your browser as a security precaution, so the active content in the report may be disabled when you open a report. You can usually tell when a browser is blocking active content by looking for a message. For example, Internet Explorer 6 displays a message like this at the top of the browser window:



To temporarily enable active content on this report only, right-click on the information bar and choose “Allow blocked content.” You will need to perform this step each time you open the report.

To persistently enable active content for all files stored on your computer (such as these reports), you can change your browser’s settings.

In Internet Explorer 6:

1. From the Tools menu, choose Internet Options
2. Click the Advanced Tab.
3. Scroll down through the list of Settings to the Security section at the bottom of the list
4. Place a check in the box for the item entitled “Allow active content to run in files on My Computer”
5. Click OK.

1. From the Tools menu, choose Options
2. In the Security and Privacy options panel on the right-hand side, click Site Controls
3. Click on the Site List tab
4. In the “Master Settings” list in the upper left, check “I’m Not Sure”
5. Ensure Enable JavaScript / VBScript is clicked in the Web Features list to the right-hand side
6. Under “Master Settings”, also check the “I’m Not Sure” option and confirm that “Enable JavaScript” is checked for this setting as well.