Designing sustainable society scenarios using forecasting

Environmental problems such as resource depletion and climate change are the most serious problems for society and industry. In order to deal with such problems, scenario writing is a useful methodology for envisioning ideal future, such as sustainable society. Although describing these scenarios requires a lot of time and a large amount of work, there is no computational support for it. In order to resolve this problem, this paper proposes a design methodology of scenarios based on forecasting approach, which explores future from current situation. In order to realize computational scenario design support, we formalize the design process as four steps; setting problems, constructing causal networks, describing storylines, and describing scenario texts. And we develop Scenario Design Support System for supporting the scenario design process on a computer. For testing the proposed methodology, we designed "Electric Vehicle Diffused Society Scenario" as a case study. In the case study, proposed process and design support methodology were useful for designing a forecasting scenario.