Environmental informatics
Environmental informatics (EI) is a developing field of science that applies information processing, management, and sharing strategies to the interdisciplinary field of environmental science.[1] Applications include the integration of information and knowledge, the application of computational intelligence to environmental data, and the identification of the environmental impacts of information technology. EI helps scientists define information processing requirements, analyze real-world problems, and solve those problems using informatics methodologies and tools.[2]
As EI has continued to evolve, several other definitions have been offered over the years:
- "an emerging field centering around the development of standards and protocols, both technical and institutional, for sharing and integrating environmental data and information."[3] - Biosphere Data Project, University of California - Berkeley, 2004
- the application of "[r]esearch and system development focusing on the environmental sciences relating to the creation, collection, storage, processing, modelling, interpretation, display and dissemination of data and information."[4] - Natural Environment Research Council, 2014
History
Environmental informatics emerged roughly around the late 1980s in Central Europe.[2] For example, in 1986 Germany's Gesellschaft für Informatik (Society for Computer Science) created the technical committee Informatik im Umweltschutz (Computer Science in Environmental Protection) dedicated to "the whole spectrum of subjects related to informatics in environmental protection."[5] The group is still active as of 2014, set to host it's 28th International Conference on Informatics for Environmental Protection.[6]
Initiatives
Current initiatives to effectively manage, share, and reuse environmental and ecological data are indicative of the increasing importance of fields like environmental informatics and Ecoinformatics to develop the foundations for effectively managing ecological information. Examples of these initiatives are National Science Foundation Datanet projects, DataONE and Data Conservancy.
External links
Notes
This article reuses a few elements from the Wikipedia article.
References
- ↑ Hilty, L. M.; Page, B.; Radermacher, F. J.; Riekert, W. F.; Avouris, N. M. (ed.) (1995). "Chapter 1: Environmental Informatics as a New Discipline of Applied Computer Science". Environmental Informatics. Springer. pp. 1–11. ISBN 9789048145386. http://www.springer.com/environment/environmental+management/book/978-0-7923-3445-3. Retrieved 03 June 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Page, B.; Wohlgemuth, V. (2010). "Advances in Environmental Informatics: Integration of Discrete Event Simulation Methodology with ecological Material Flow Analysis for Modelling eco-efficient Systems". Procedia Environmental Sciences 2: 696–705. doi:10.1016/j.proenv.2010.10.079. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187802961000112X. Retrieved 03 June 2014.
- ↑ Kada, Kathryn; Lussier, Steve. "Biosphere Data Project - What is Environmental Informatics?". University of California - Berkeley. Archived from the original on 11 December 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20041211010311/http://dream.sims.berkeley.edu/biosphere/eimore.html. Retrieved 03 June 2014.
- ↑ "NERC - Research areas". Natural Environment Research Council. http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/application/howtoapply/topics/. Retrieved 03 June 2014.
- ↑ Geiger, Werner (22 April 1996). "General Information about the Technical Committee 'Computer Science in Environmental Protection'". Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. Archived from the original on 26 July 1997. https://web.archive.org/web/19970726002709/http://www.iai.fzk.de/Fachgruppe/GI/allgemeines.eng.html. Retrieved 03 June 2014.
- ↑ "EnviroInfo 2014". University of Oldenburg. http://www.enviroinfo2014.org/. Retrieved 03 June 2014.
