Trends Identified
Techniques to optimise spatial planning
Practices to optimise land planning in accordance with the landscape structure and the environmental and resource potential of the land imply the embedding of the landscape component in the land planning procedure. They will include GIS algorithms for landscape mapping, the development of generally accepted classifiers for various scale levels, and substantial GIS modelling of key stages of landscape planning: engineering and geological assessments of land, analysis of the capacity (vulnerability, resistance) of landscapes, calculation of ecoservice systems, arrangement of the environmental framework and planning regional tourist and recreational systems.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Precision agriculture
Precision Agriculture (PA) is a farming management concept. It aims to optimise returns on inputs, including machinery, labour, chemicals, water and energy, whilst potentially reducing environmental impacts and enhancing food safety. The concept is based upon observing, measuring and responding to inter and intrafield variability in crops, or to aspects of animal husbandry. The technology offers opportunity to stimulate co-innovation, strengthen competitiveness and to contribute to a more climate and eco-smart farming. PA is seen as an important route to 'sustainable intensification'.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Human obsolescence - How quickly will machines sweep man aside?
Predictions about artificial intelligence (AI) have a patchy record. Any greybeard in the field will tell you tales of previous hype cycles in the 1970s and 1980s that crashed when their fabulous promises were not fulfilled. Now, though, times are good again. A spurt of progress in machine learning, a sub-field of AI, has companies piling in. The technology is being used for everything from working out how best to aim advertisements at web-surfers to how to develop selfdriving cars. A landmark was working out how to beat humans at Go, an East Asian strategy game that computers have historically found hard. An AI created by DeepMind, a British subsidiary of Google, beat a human champion of the game in 2015.
2018
The world in 2018
The Economist
Medicine gets personal
Prepare for tailor-made treatment
2016
World in 2017
The Economist
Custom at all Costs - Playing new games with price
Price sensitivity remains a key and determining feature of the consumer landscape, and recent years have seen much price elasticity innovation to appeal to consumers (even the relatively well- off) engaged in a daily battle against unnecessary largesse in the aisles. In 2018 and beyond, anticipate further dismantling of RRP and a growing tendency to permit flexible, time-sensitive, lifestyle- and lifestage- personalised, progressive pricing models to differentiate and entice.
2018
Trending 2018
Foresight Factory
Bio-plastics
Primarily driven by non-climate related environmental concerns, notably plastic trash in the ocean, biodegradable plastic is likely to make inroads as the technology develops, with potentially upward of 50% of plastics replaced by non- oil based alternatives by 2040, 8 including potentially with nanotechnology solutions.
2018
The bigger picture- The impact of automation, AI, shared economy on oil demand
The 2° Investing Initiative
Brexit will continue to consume the European political scene.
Prime Minister Theresa May is now touring European capitals to attempt to renegotiate her Brexit deal with the EU after she canceled a parliamentary vote, which should have taken place today. Brexit should have been the most predictable geopolitical event of 2019 – we’ve known for two years the clock runs out at the end of March. Instead, it continues to defy predictions. Negotiations will be uncertain to the very last minute, Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, warns. “May now needs to be thinking about plan B, since she’s lost so many [members of parliament],” he says. A revamped “Norway plus” deal is becoming the most likely outcome, but the tail risks of a no deal Brexit or a second referendum are also increasing, he adds. “It is really, really hard to come to terms to negotiate something this complicated with one of the most challenging supranational institutions in the world, the EU, and one of the most dysfunctional developed governments in the world today, the U.K.” Writing any more about Brexit at this point would just be handing the stick you’ll beat me with in a day or two.
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Progress in AI has accelerated rapidly since around 2010, driven by the confluence of the growing availability of large data sets from commerce, social media, science and other sources; continued improvements in computational power; and the development of better machine learning algorithms and techniques (such as “deep learning”). Systems are now capable of learning how to accomplish a task without having been provided with explicit steps for doing so. Once designed and deployed, the neural network that underpins modern AI can formulate its own rules for interpreting new data and designing solutions, with minimal— or no— human participation.
2018
World Economic And Social Survey 2018: Frontier Technologies For Sustainable Development
United Nations
New materials for vehicles and infrastructure
Progress in the field of new materials for vehicles and infrastructure is not possible without technological breakthroughs in material engineering. Special attention will be paid to developing composite materials, metal alloys and metal-ceramics with nanoadditives, nanocoated parts to be used in aggressive environments, metal-polymers and polymer composite materials, carbon fibres with enhanced strength, heat and impact resistance, as well as new types of synthetic lubricants. The use of innovative construction materials in the rolling stock of prospective forms of rail, road and water transport will make it possible to reduce fuel expenditure by up to 20%, increase the safety of using structures and constructions during the planned service timeframe, increase their service life, and decrease environmental pollution by almost twofold.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Affordable catalysts for green vehicles
Progress is being made on a promising zero-emission technology, the hydrogen-fed fuel cell. Progress to date has been stymied by the high price of catalysts which contain platinum. However, much progress has been made reducing reliance on this rare and expensive metal, and the latest developments involve catalysts that include no platinum, or in some cases no metal at all.
2017
These are the top 10 emerging technologies of 2017
World Economic Forum (WEF)