Environmental informatics explained

Environmental informatics is the science of information applied to environmental science. As such, it provides the information processing and communication infrastructure to the interdisciplinary field of environmental sciences[1] aiming at data, information and knowledge integration, the application of computational intelligence to environmental data as well as the identification of environmental impacts of information technology. The UK Natural Environment Research Council defines environmental informatics as the "research and system development focusing on the environmental sciences relating to the creation, collection, storage, processing, modelling, interpretation, display and dissemination of data and information."[2] Kostas Karatzas defined environmental informatics as the "creation of a new 'knowledge-paradigm' towards serving environmental management needs."[3] Karatzas argued further that environmental informatics "is an integrator of science, methods and techniques and not just the result of using information and software technology methods and tools for serving environmental engineering needs."

Environmental informatics emerged in early 1990 in Central Europe.[4]

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.

Conferences

Journals

Institutions

Environmental Infomatics

Informatics Applications and Systems Group, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering: Teaching and Research on Environmental Informatics and Quality of Life Information Services

Environmental Informatics Research Group

Applied environmental informatics, based at the University of Reading, UK

Environmental Informatics, a research institute

Centre for environmental informatics

GIS and Environmental Informatics

Division of environmental informatics and modeling

PhD in Environmental Informatics

Environmental informatics

Department of environmental informatics, research institute for soil science and agricultural chemistry, Hungarian academy of sciences

Sustainable development & environmental informatics

Department of Mechanical and Environmental Informatics

Research focus area in environmental informatics

Bren school environmental informatics research

Center of excellence for strategic energy and environmental informatics

Division of environmental informatics within the department of environmental science at Kuopio Campus

Research in environmental informatics

Environmental informatics undergraduate program

Physical Geography: Environmental Informatics

Environmental informatics GIS and modeling graduate program

Environmentla Informatics postgraduate course

Division of environmental informatics

Centre for environmental informatics

Research and undergraduate program

Professional Science Graduate Program: Environmental Informatics

Doctoral College: Environmental Informatics

Undergraduate Program: Environmental Informatics

Collaborations

Data Observation Network for Earth

Leading the movement to build data management tools and services across institutions and disciplines

Notes and References

  1. L.M. Hilty, B. Page, F.J. Radermacher and W.-F. Riekert. Environmental Informatics as a new discipline of applied computer science. N.M. Avouris and B. Page (eds.), Environmental Informatics (1995), pp. 1-11. Kluwer Academic Publishers. The Netherlands.
  2. Web site: NERC - Science topics within NERC's remit . www.nerc.ac.uk . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20061222122104/http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/application/topics.asp . 2006-12-22.
  3. K. Karatzas. Environmental Informatics: Concepts and Definitions. In: A. Gnauck and R. Heinrich (eds.), Proceedings of "The Information Society and Enlargement of the European Union"-17th International Conference Informatics for Environmental Protection, Part 1: Concepts and Methods. Metropolis publishers, pp. 146-151, .
  4. B. Page, V. Wohlgemuth. Advances in Environmental Informatics: Integration of Discrete Event Simulation Methodology with ecological Material Flow Analysis for Modelling eco-efficient Systems, Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 2, International Conference on Ecological Informatics and Ecosystem Conservation (ISEIS 2010), 2010, Pages 696-705, ISSN 1878-0296,