1. A computerized method for generating prognoses for operative systems on a basis of multidimensional data records describing a state of a system, product and/or process, by utilizing the self-organizing maps method, which comprises: determining an ordered grid of nodes representing a data distribution; for taking into account nonlinearities in the data, effecting an internal scaling of variables based on a nonlinear influence of each variable on a prediction variable; determining local receptive regions assigned to the nodes and calculating local linear regressions on a basis of the local receptive regions; calculating optimized prediction values for controlling the operative system with the aid of a set of local prediction models thus obtained, by determining a respectively adequate node for each new data record and applying a local prediction model to the data record; and at least one of: outputting at least one of the local prediction models or optimized prediction values for display on a visualization unit; and controlling the operative system based on the calculated optimized prediction values.