Editor Richard K. Brail has brought together the wisest of the field s thinkers, the most inventive of the toolmakers, the most experienced of those working at the interface with real clients, and the most battle-seasoned practicing planners (and many of these individuals occupy more than one of these niches). Together they present a broad view of the field, in-depth developmental histories of the most important models and tools as told by their creators, and a provocative, in-the-trenches critique of the state of the art. Planning will never be easy; it needs and deserves the best support systems that modelers and system developers can deliver. This volume not only reports that they are working on it, but also gives us a glimpse at future tools suited to a planning process that has become, as Brail says, more visual, more public, more accessible, and more collaborative.