Allan W. Shearer

Professor
Associate Dean for Research and Technology
Assistant Program Director for Landscape Architecture

Potter Rose Professor in Urban Planning

A collage shows a cityscape with domed buildings, a drone flying above, diverse people on rooftops, and diagrammed connections between roles like President, Mayor, Prime Minister, villagers, and city officials discussing various societal topics.
A circular diagram with four labeled quadrants: Forms, Image of the World, Challenges/Opportunities, and Objectives/Vision. Curved arrows connect each section with keywords like experience, ontology, ethics, and epistemology along the paths.
Book cover for Gaias Revenge by P. H. Liotta and Allan W. Shearer, featuring a flooded landscape and a red-orange circle with the text Climate Change and Humanity’s Loss.
The cover of the book Land Use Scenarios: Environmental Consequences of Development features a red background with white and orange text. The authors’ names are listed below the title. CRC Press logo appears at the bottom.
A conceptual diagram shows timelines from the distant past to the present, branching into multiple near and distant future scenarios, with grids, paths, colored clusters, and labeled future possibilities.
Nine network diagrams labeled with city names, each showing six connected nodes labeled L, P, M, S, L, and E, representing various relationships. Cities listed: Basra, Caracas, Delhi, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, London, St. Louis, St. Petersburg, Shenzhen.

Allan W. Shearer studies how descriptions of possible futures shape present-day decisions by expanding the conceptual frameworks and methods of design and scenario-based studies. He teaches graduate landscape planning and design studios and courses that bridge Landscape Architecture and the school's other planning and design programs.

One application of this research has been to understand how ideas about security are applied to landscapes and cities. He contributed to the NATO Urbanization Project, which identified the concepts and capabilities needed for future operations. His work on military lands examined their dual role in national security as training and testing grounds and in environmental security as reserves that sustain clean air, clean water, and native biodiversity. He has also written about the relationships among national, environmental, and human security in the context of climate change.

Recent writing focuses on the structures and functions of urban systems. These include the chapter "Fragility and Antifragility in Urban Systems" in Resilient Cities in a Changing World: Design and the Urgency of Climate Challenge; the conference paper "Order in Complex Urban Systems"; and a collaboration on "Conceptualizing a Model of Antifragility for Dense Urban Areas" in the Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture.

Earlier writing includes "The Paradox of Security," published in Design with Nature Now and excerpted online in Places Journal, and "Roleplaying to Improve Resilience," which appeared in a special issue on design teaching in Architecture_MPS.

Shearer is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. The latter also awarded him its Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Work. The Design Futures Council has named him among its Most Admired Educators. He serves as President-Elect of the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board.

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D., Harvard University
  • A.M., Harvard University
  • M.L.A. with Distinction, Harvard University
  • A.B. (Art History), Princeton University

PUBLICATIONS

A.W. Shearer, "Austin's Creek Plan Offers Blueprint for Growth," Austin American-Statesman 155:290 (July 5, 2026), p. A15.

A.W. Shearer, "Fragility and Antifragility in Urban Systems, "in Resilient Cities in a Changing World:  Design and the Urgency of Climate Challenge, Ian Owen, Editor Stevenage, UK:  Neilsen DataBook and Amps, 2025), pp. 26–36.

A.W. Shearer, "Order in Complex Urban Systems," Livable Cities Conference Proceedings (New York:  Amps, 2023), 11 pp.

A.W. Shearer, "Connecting Ethics and Epistemology through Metaphor," Landscape Research Record 11 (2023), pp 2–24.
 
A.W. Shearer, Foreword to Mark Smith, Design Portfolios:  A Recruiters View (New York:  Wiley 2023).
 
A.W. Shearer, "Order in Complex Urban Systems" Livable Cities Conference Proceedings—New York, 2023.
 
A.W. Shearer, "Expanding the Use of Scenarios in Geodesign:  Engaging Uncertainty in the Anthropocene," Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture 7 (2022), pp. 472–486.
 
A.W. Shearer, "Transforming the PMESII Framework to Capture the Functional Complexities of Urban Areas," The City and Complexity:  Life, Design and Commerce in the Built Environment, Amps Proceedings Series 19.2 (2021), pp. 365–383.

A.W. Shearer, D.J. Kilcullen, and G. Pendleton, "Conceptualizing a Model of Antifragility for Dense Urban Areas," Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture 6 (2021), pp. 75–84. https://gispoint.de/fileadmin/user_upload/paper_gis_open/DLA_2021/537705004.pdf

A.W. Shearer, "Roleplaying to Improve Resilience," Architecture_MPS 18:1 (2021), article 6, 14 pp. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10121445/1/AMPS-18-6.pdf

A.W. Shearer, "Design Assumptions," in T. Fisher, B. Orland, and C. Steinitz (Eds.), The International Geodesign Collaboration:  Changing Geography by Design (Redlands, California:  Esri Press, 2020), pp. 15–19.

A.W. Shearer, "The Paradox of Security," in F. Steiner et al. (Eds.) Design with Nature Now

(Cambridge, Massachusetts:  Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2019), pp. 294–300.  Excerpted in Places Journal. https://placesjournal.org/article/the-paradox-of-security/

A.W. Shearer, "Abduction to Argument:  A Framework of Design Thinking," Landscape Journal 34:2 (2015), pp. 127–138.

A.W. Shearer et al., Land Use Scenarios:  Environmental Consequences of Development (Boca Raton, Florida:  CRC-Taylor & Francis, 2009).

P.H. Liotta and A.W. Shearer, Gaia's Revenge:  Climate Change and Humanity's Loss (Westport, Connecticut:  Praeger, 2007).

A.W. Shearer, "Approaching Scenario-Based Studies:  Three Perceptions about the Future and Considerations for Landscape Planning," Environment and Planning B:  Planning & Design 32:1 (2005), pp. 67–87. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1068/b3116

A.W. Shearer, "Applying Burke's Dramatic Pentad to Scenarios," Futures 36:8 (2004), pp. 823–835. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328704000102

A middle-aged man with glasses, short light hair, and a serious expression wears a grey suit, white shirt, and patterned tie, posing against a plain background.
Contact
(512) 232-5286

Office:  WMB 4.102C

AREAS OF INTEREST
  • Design and Scenario Methods
  • Geodesign
  • Environmental Security
  • Urbanization
COURSES TAUGHT

Design Methods

Serious Games 

Futures and Cities

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