** Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, 2012, New York City ****
** ** Session Title: Scenario Methods in Geographic Research**** ** ** Organizers: Kathleen Dietrich (kdietr...@psu.edu) and Mark Read ( mrr...@psu.edu), The Pennsylvania State University**** ** ** Sponsorship: Human Dimensions of Global Change Specialty Group**** ** ** Description: Scenario planning and analysis have been used extensively by the business community for decades and are gaining recognition by the policy and research communities. Scenarios are well suited to studying plausible futures in complex geographic problems that are highly uncertain and uncontrollable. They can be conducted at any spatial level, from local to global; some scenario studies have attempted to conduct multilevel analysis. Specific methods employed in scenario analysis are quite diverse, leading to what some have called methodological chaos, but recent efforts in the academic community have worked to streamline scenario methodologies, improve the academic rigor of scenario analysis, and make scenario processes more transparent. **** **** This paper session seeks to highlight recent or ongoing geographical research that employs scenario methods to study complex problems related to climate change, global change, land use, resource management, energy, or other areas of research. Papers may address either qualitative or quantitative scenario approaches, or combinations of the two approaches. *** * ** ** Specific questions of interest include: **** **· **What types of geographic research are suitable for scenario work? **** **· **What are advantages and opportunities of scenario-based research over more traditional research methods?**** **· **What are the challenges and limitations of scenario-based research over more traditional research methods? **** **· **When and how could qualitative and quantitative scenario methods be combined?**** **· **What are effective methods of communicating scenario results? **** **· **How do we manage uncertainty both in our scenario methods and our communication of scenario results?**** ** ** To participate in this paper session, register and submit your abstract online following the AAG Guidelines. Then, email your presenter identification number (PIN), paper title, and abstract to Katie Dietrich ( kdietr...@psu.edu) and Mark Read (mrr...@psu.edu) by September 23, 2011. *** * **
