Big data for a sustainable future

Abstract

Robert White and colleagues point out that most scientific luminaries from centuries past were religious (Nature 501, 33; 2013). This says a great deal about the societies that these scientists lived and worked in, but little about the value or truth of a theistic world view, as can be seen by considering what else these great names have in common: they were all men.

An integrated theoretical framework to enhance resource efficiency, sustainability and human health in agri-food systems

“…LCA and subsequent analyses will generate vast arrays of data, analysis of which will be aided and enhanced with Big Data analytics (Gijzen, 2013), in the future through theoretical and experimental quantum computing (Howard et al, 2014). Integration and sharing of this data will be essential because sustainable food security demands multi-community research collaborations and information sharing not just within the business and its supply chains but also with governments, agricultural research centres and farmers.…”

Improving natural resource management and human health to ensure sustainable societal development based upon insights gained from working within ‘Big Data Environments’

“…The reduction and disappearance of one natural resource may directly or indirectly result in the reduction and disappearance of other resources. 'Big Data' is an all-encompassing term for any collection of data sets, which are so large and complex that they are difficult to process using traditional data processing applications (Ohlhorst, 2012;Hampton et al, 2013;Tien, 2013). 'Big Data' is an emerging area for scholars and practitioners, to use to investigate the complex inter-relationships among multiple elements of a system (Russom, 2011;Gijzen, 2013).…”

Integrated watershed management: evolution, development and emerging trends

“…Time should be devoted to collecting detailed data that can be used to model and test alternative management scenarios of watersheds. This is not only important locally for the watershed of interest, but it is globally important that watersheds be managed sustainably and to the best of our abilities (Gizjen 2013). Data mining is a commonly used technique to make sense of big data.…”

“…Within the context of global climate change, the big data network system could lead to better analyses of the changing ecological and environmental dynamics of watersheds. It could also enable the evaluation of the influence of human and natural factors, enabling more objective evaluations of watershed condition and the implementation of more scientific management (Gizjen 2013). It is important to utilize technology and models that are downscaled (Milly et al 2008) and regionally specific, as this enables management strategies to be tailored to the specific ecological and socioeconomic needs of the watershed of interest to ensure they remain viable and contribute to mitigating climate change.…”