Environmental Informatics as a New Discipline of Applied Computer Science

Environmental Informatics Towards a new Discipline in Applied Computer Science for Environmental Protection and Research

“…On the other hand, new and challenging requirements arise in the environmental sector that stimulate research and development in Infonnatics methodology and applications. The main challenge to Infonnatics is the complexity and heterogeneity of the environmental sector, demanding for innovative approaches to control complexity and to integrate existing data, information, and knowledge from various scientific disciplines and organizations (Hilty 1995a). It has to be stressed, however, that Environmental Infonnatics does not only explore the potential benefits of information technology for contributing to the solution of environmental problems, but also sees its responsibility to consider the negative environmental impacts of IT (Rolf 1994).…”

“…This is particularily true for Applied Informatics (sometimes also called "Applied Computer Science"), the branch of Informatics which bridges the gap between information technology and its various application fields. Applied Informatics is holding a mediation role (Hilty 1995a). On one hand, it analyses realworld problems in a given application field and defmes requirements on information technology.…”

“…• Integrating knowledge is a long-term goal aiming at the compatibility of the terminologies and conceptual frameworks of different disciplines and institutions (Hilty 1995a). …”

“…These requirements, however, are confronted with the existing heterogeneity of the different standards, terms and measuring methods in the environmental field as well as of hardware and software environments, database systems, method and model bases, network technology, and programming languages. Approaches for overcoming the heterogeneity, one of the major obstacles to open software solutions, can have a tremendous impact on the productivity in environmental management, and can also lead to a greater stability in system design and system usage in environmental information processing Hilty 1995a).…”

“…The following trends in environmental infonnation processing have been recently reported (Radermacher 1994;Hilty 1994a;Hilty 1995a):…”