An Analysis of the Corpus of Observation Methods in Futures Study and Identifying Models for Applying It to Futures Study Centers

Activities of futures study are used for a better assessment of the opportunities and threats and a precise identification of important current and future issues. Monitoring future issues can help recognize and understand current and future changes.  Awareness of emerging problems, directed signals and surprises pave the way for futures study and forecasting. Meanwhile, observations of future is introduced as a tool to discover, analyze and give meaning to these issues for providing the necessary data needed for futures study. The future observation approach is presented to assist policymakers and make decision-makers ready to deal with unexpected and emergent changes by constant and in-depth study and analysis of emerging issues. Various mixed models of future prediction have been tested and utilized. This research has been conducted by library and documentary method. The goals, issues, prerequisites and methods of this approach in the field of observation are analyzed. Finally, the suggested 8-step trend is presented to be employed in the Iranian futures study centers.