Technology For Global And Regional Environmental Decision-Making

Abstract

The environmental protection decision-maker wrestling with such problems as climate change, deforestation, loss of bio-diversity, water pollution, etc., is faced with an enormous variety of potentially incompatible information sources from which to extract key indicators and forecast consequences of action. Decision-support technology is evolving to assist in this process and there are many challenges to overcome. The challenges include the sheer size of the data banks — satellite remote sensing is adding an estimated terrabyte of data per day — the geographic distribution of the information, hence need for spatial information systems technology, the difficulty of reconciling information collected by different methods and the needed integration of multisectoral data (including environmental, social and economic factors). Some of the principal tools for managing global environmental information include geographic information systems (GIS), data acquisition technology (satellite and ground based), metadatabases, advanced distributed databases and spatio-temporal modelling and forecasting systems. A number of important new technological tools are now available, but environmental decision-makers must continue to articulate their requirements to ensure that the needed systems will be available in the future.