Editorial: Informatics for sustainable energy development and environmental management

Abstract

Energy demand and supply are of fundamental importance to the society due to their impacts on various environmental and economic activities (Schweizer-Ries, 2008; Jin et al., 2010). Although energy-related and environmental concerns are originally local (e.g., environmental problems associated with extraction, transport, conversion and consumption of energy resources), they have recently been extended to issues at multiple spatial scales, such as global effects of large-scale energy activities, international energy trade and pollutant-emission conflicts, and regional energy allocation and environmental management (Huang and Chang, 2003; Yuksel, 2012). Moreover, these issues are being further complicated by rising energy prices, shrinking energy reserves, and varying legislational, geographic, socio-economic and political conditions, leading to a variety of complexities in the relevant decision-making processes (Matsuhashi et al., 1996; Verderame et al., 2010). In order to systematically analyze environmental effects of energy activities and optimally allocate energy resources/services for supporting sustainable energy development, it is desired that effective policy analysis and decision-support techniques be developed (Huang and Chang, 2003; Olabi, 2012). The purpose of this special issue is thus to report some of the latest research related to the evolving area, which addresses various issues of sustainable energy development and environmental management. The Guest Editors of this special issue of Environmental Systems Research an International Journal have therefore invited experts, to share their knowledge by reviewing and studying most of the key aspects of “Informatics for Sustainable Energy Development and Environmental Management”. Given the multidisciplinary and collaborative nature of inquiries into the interaction between energy and environment, the contributions incorporate diversified and creative applications of theories and methodologies from various fields including decision support systems (DSS), economics,