Horizon scanning

Horizon scanning is a way of using information to find out what bad things might happen in the future. Imagine that you are walking down a long path, and you can only see what is in front of you - that is like horizon scanning. You don't know what might happen a long way ahead, but you can make guesses about what might be around the corner or further down the path. To do horizon scanning, people look at news, science papers, reports and other information, to try to figure out what could happen in the future. They then use this information to help plan for any bad things that might happen.