Abstract
Environmental information is important for understanding how our planet is changing and what is the role of human activities in the process of these changes. Access to quality environmental information is crucial for developing relevant policies and appropriate practical responses for the global and regional environmental problems. Environmental information systems have been developed for many years to facilitate environmental information creation, organization and access; however the boundaries of environmental information research are beyond dealing with just the systems and can cover various topics under the broad discipline of environmental information science. This article reviews the concept of the science of environmental information and the topics that might be included in it.
Highlights
There has been a consensus that the key for overcoming global and regional environmental issues is to input real-time and reliable environmental information in environmental decisions “...the developments in today's modern society challenge us to rethink the role of knowledge and information in dealing with environmental challenges” (Mol 2006,Mutshewa, 2007; Briassoulis, 1999; Naess, 1994)
When we think of “environmental information science” as a discipline that is laying at the intersection of “environmental science” and “information science”, the complexity of its nature may raise even more because “information science” itself has many ambiguities in its definition
The objective of environmental information science is generation, acquisition, management, utilization, and analysis of collections of environmental information in order to facilitate the flow of information into the process of environmental planning, policy developing and decision-making, as well as establishing an integrated scientific approach to the study of various phenomena involving in this process
Summary
There has been a consensus that the key for overcoming global and regional environmental issues is to input real-time and reliable environmental information in environmental decisions “...the developments in today's modern society challenge us to rethink the role of knowledge and information in dealing with environmental challenges” (Mol 2006,Mutshewa, 2007; Briassoulis, 1999; Naess, 1994). While environmental experts realized the importance of environmental information from the emerging years of environmental sciences, the need for more systematic management of environmental information has received more attention in the past two decades. There have been significant technological advancements in environmental information management and it receives continues attention by scientists, information professionals and academic librarians. Some academic departments and research groups have emerged with the title of “environmental information science”; the fact that whether this discipline and its components are properly defined and understood can still be a matter of discussion. This article reflects the authors' thoughts on the notions of environmental information and environmental information science
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