Future Scenarios

By 2050 an additional 1.7 million people are expected to live in the Willamette River Basin, bringing the total population to around four million. That?s equivalent to adding three more cities the size of Portland or 13 the size of Eugene.

Our challenge is to accommodate that many more people without losing qualities of the basin that we value.

Researchers at the Pacific Northwest Ecosystem Research Consortium assessed likely conditions of the Willamette basin in 2050 under three plausible future scenarios:

Plan Trend 2050 vision represents the expected future landscape if current policies are implemented as written and recent trends continue.

Development 2050 reflects a loosening of current restrictions across all aspects of the landscape, based on achieving short term economic gains.

Conservation 2050 places greater emphasis on ecosystem protection and restoration, although still reflecting a plausible balance between ecological, social, and economic considerations as defined by the stakeholders.

The future scenarios maps allow you to see projected land use and land cover (i.e. farming, housing, native Oak Savanna) in the future and compare that to the land use and land cover in 1990.