Introduction
One of the new ways of identifying and planning to deal with future crises is futures research. One of the techniques of futures research is “environmental scanning” (ES). It is a type of recording and obtaining information through exploration and search that is used to understand environmental changes and developments. Aguilar defined ES as the acquisition of “information about events and relationships in a company’s outside environment, the knowledge of which would assist top management in its task of charting the company’s future course of action.” Due to the special importance of this issue, many models and methods have been designed for ES, many of which are optimized and used in accordance with their application context. The ES process gradually developed and was conceptualized for the management of information systems.
In providing continuous and sustainable services to citizens, the identification, monitoring, and management of urban crises are needed. Crisis management refers to a set of measures that are taken before, during, and after a crisis to minimize its consequences. Given the function of surveillance in predicting and preventing accidents, as well as assisting in decision-making for dealing with accidents, it can play a significant role in urban crisis management. This research aims to review the ES literature to provide a localized model of the ES tailored to scanning urban crises for the Tehran municipality.

Methods
This an applied qualitative study using the content analysis method. Participants were 12 experts who had a background in research or work in the field of ES and in Tehran municipality. Semi-structured interviews and focused group discussions were used to collect data. The library method was also used to extract various models and concepts of ES. Each interview began with simple open-ended questions. Then, based on the participants’ statements, questions were asked in line with the study objectives starting with “Could you explain more.”, “why” and “how”. Interviews continued until data saturation was reached. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Finally, the data was analyzed using content analysis and the codes were extracted. To ensure the trustworthiness of the data, the findings were evaluated by an expert panel.

Results
There are various definitions for ES, but a common framework can be found between the above definitions for monitoring, scanning, environment, and elements. By putting them together, the following definition for ES can be reached: Regular arrangement of elements for monitoring and scanning of the environment in order to achieve the organization’s goals. Based on the literature and opinions of experts, features of the ES models were extracted and listed (Table 1).



These features were then ranked in terms of compliance with the missions of the Tehran Municipality (Figure 1).



The models of ES extracted from the literature (n=13) were also scored in terms of compliance with the missions of the Tehran Municipality. In this regard, Bradley–Terry (1997)’s model ranked first with 114 points followed by Haynes et al. (2018)’s model with 91 points and Gordon & Glenn (2009)’s model with 87 points.  In the final step, after drafting the initial model, we reviewed it in a session with experts and examined its shortcomings, as well as the elements that needed to be added or subtracted. Finally, the model was localized and finalized which is shown in Figure 2.



The final ES process model had three sections: input, analysis, and output. The input section of the system includes the departments responsible for ES. This section uses the capacity of all municipal subordinate agencies under the supervision of the Tehran Municipality’s Crisis Prevention and Management Organization. In this section, each department uses the capabilities and expertise of experts in the field to conduct ES, identify key strategic and operational issues, and present them to the analysis section. After receiving information and data from the input section, the analysis section of the system is responsible for the ES system management. In this section, after evaluating the data and verifying their accuracy, they are processed and each issue is referred to the relevant department in the command center of the Tehran Municipality’s Crisis Prevention and Management Organization. In this section, each department, after necessary monitoring of the data, divides the issues into two parts: strategic and operational goals, and develops appropriate strategic and operational programs using the opinions of experts. After developing strategic and operational plans, they are directed to the output section of the system for implementation and operational action.

Conclusion
In this study, after reviewing the existing national and international models of ES in the literature, we extracted their features based on the opinions of experts and designed an ES process model for the Tehran Municipality. It is recommended that the future studies use our study as basis for localizing appropriate models based on the requirements of their organizations.

Ethical Considerations

Compliance with ethical guidelines
All ethical principles were considered in this study.

Funding
This article was extracted from the thesis of Jalal Pourasghar at the Faculty of Hazrat Vali Asr, Imam Hussein University. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for profit sectors.

Authors' contributions
The authors contributed equally to preparing this article.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.