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 and it is often changeable. Assumptions apply to an entire scenario. For example, your assumptions about water consumption per household will impact the indicator for total water consumption for a scenario. Assumptions can also 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 the 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. Indicator results are automatically recalculated as you experiment with alternatives and the results can be displayed in a chart. Indicators apply to an entire scenario. An indicator might be used to evaluate costs, revenues, average household size, "community benefit", or total daily auto trips.

What is an Attribute?

1. 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.

2. A characteristic of a geographic feature described by numbers, characters, images, and CAD drawings, typically stored in tabular format and linked to the feature by a user-assigned identifier. For example, the attributes of a well might include depth and gallons per minute.

3. A column in a table.

What is an Alert?

An alert may be associated with an assumption, a dynamic attribute, or an indicator. 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 symbol on a map.