Partly because of the fact that in the nearby future major infrastructure investment decisions need to be taken, the Ministry of Transport and Public Works has a need for policy directions that are appropriate in many different futures. However, it is not possible to give a precise prediction of the future. Therefore, different conceivable future images of society in the year 2025 or so-called environment scenarios are developed in the Questa scenario project. Each of these scenarios will have its own consequences for the developments in mobility and other aspects of inland transportation. The scenarios are to be an essential element in the policy development process of the new Transport Structure Plan (SVV III). The environment scenarios need to be drawn up from many possible uncertain developments in society. Because of the focus on mobility, it is essential to only consider developments with a strong impact in this field. As a start of the scenario building process, a large quantity of relevant information, regarding all sorts of future societal developments was gathered through literature, several workshops and interviews with some thirty `remarkable persons' in Dutch society. This paper focuses on some of the more methodological aspects of the Questa project. (A)
Abstract