The Perspectives of Environmental Informatics and Systems Analysis

Abstract

The development of novel information technologies has been in extraordinarily rapid progress, and some new techniques and tools have yet to be applied to environmental management. In many cases, however, the roles of these technologies have been limited in the provision of improved convenience for system implementation and presentation. Although these roles are meaningful for extensive transfer of new methodologies and convenient access of research outcomes, they do not directly contribute to methodology development. Therefore, further development of high performance computing and knowledge management potentials associated with artificial intelligence techniques is desired to promote long-term viability of the environmental informatics. In this paper, recent developments, advancements, challenges, and barriers associated with practices of environmental informatics research are analyzed. A number of related methodologies, applications, and policy considerations are examined. Issues of the needs for environmental systems analysis, the challenges of environmental systems modeling, and the impacts of environmental informatics are discussed. Perspectives of the environmental decision-making in the 21st century are investigated, demonstrating many demanding areas for enhanced research efforts.