Environmental informatics is the science of information applied to environmental science. As such, it provides the

information processing In cognitive psychology, information processing is an approach to the goal of understanding human thinking that treats cognition as essentially Computing, computational in nature, with the mind being the ''software'' and the brain being the ''hard ...

and communication infrastructure to the interdisciplinary field of environmental sciences aiming at data, information and knowledge integration, the application of

computational intelligence In computer science, computational intelligence (CI) refers to concepts, paradigms, algorithms and implementations of systems that are designed to show " intelligent" behavior in complex and changing environments. These systems are aimed at m ...

environmental data Environmental data is that which is based on the measurement of environmental pressures, the state of the environment and the impacts on ecosystems. This is usually the "P", "S" and "I" of the DPSIR model where D = Drivers, P = Pressures, S = Stat ...

as well as the identification of environmental impacts of

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

. The UK

Natural Environment Research Council The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is a British Research Councils UK, research council that supports research, training and knowledge transfer activities in the environmental sciences. History NERC began in 1965 when several envir ...

defines environmental informatics as the "research and system development focusing on the environmental sciences relating to the creation, collection, storage, processing, modelling, interpretation, display and dissemination of data and information." Kostas Karatzas defined environmental informatics as the "creation of a new 'knowledge-paradigm' towards serving environmental management needs." Karatzas argued further that environmental informatics "is an integrator of

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

, methods and techniques and not just the result of using

information Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...

and software technology methods and tools for serving

environmental engineering Environmental engineering is a professional engineering Academic discipline, discipline related to environmental science. It encompasses broad Science, scientific topics like chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, hydraulics, hydrology, microbiolo ...

needs." Environmental informatics emerged in early 1990 in

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

.B. Page, V. Wohlgemuth. Advances in Environmental Informatics: Integration of Discrete Event Simulation Methodology with ecological Material Flow Analysis for Modelling eco-efficient Systems, Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 2, International Conference on Ecological Informatics and Ecosystem Conservation (ISEIS 2010), 2010, Pages 696-705, ISSN 1878-0296, Current initiatives to effectively manage, share, and reuse environmental and ecological data are indicative of the increasing importance of fields like environmental informatics and

ecoinformatics Ecoinformatics, or ecological informatics, is the science of information in ecology and environmental science. It integrates environmental and information sciences to define entities and natural processes with language common to both humans and ...

to develop the foundations for effectively managing ecological information. Examples of these initiatives are

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

Datanet projects, DataONE and Data Conservancy.

Conferences

*EnviroInf
20132012
*Environmental Information Managemen
20112008
*International Conference on Adaptive and Natural Computing Algorithms *International Conference on ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S
20142013
*International Conference on Information Technologies in Environmental Engineerin
2013
*International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software (iEMSs
201420122010
*International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM
2013
*International Symposium on Environmental Software Systems (ISESS
20132011

Journals

ACM Transactions on Sensor NetworksComputers and Electronics in AgricultureEarth Science InformaticsEarth System Science DataEnvironmental Earth SciencesEnvironmental Modelling and SoftwareEnvironmental Monitoring and AssessmentIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote SensingInternational Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Information SystemsInternational Journal of Digital EarthInternational Journal of Distributed Sensor NetworksInternational Journal of Sensor NetworksJournal of Environmental InformaticsJournal of Environmental Informatics Letters

Institutions

Aalto University
Environmental Informatics
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Informatics Applications and Systems Group, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering: Teaching and Research on Environmental Informatics and Quality of Life Information Services *

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

Environmental Informatics Research GroupInstitute for Environmental Analytics
Applied environmental informatics, based at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

, UK *

Griffith University Griffith University is a public university, public research university in South East Queensland on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of Australia. The university was founded in 1971, but was not officially opened until 1975. Griffith ...

Environmental Informatics, a research instituteLancaster Environment Center
Centre for environmental informatics
Lincoln University
GIS and Environmental Informatics
Masaryk University
Division of environmental informatics and modeling
Northern Arizona University
PhD in Environmental Informatics

Environmental informatics
RISSAC
Department of environmental informatics, research institute for soil science and agricultural chemistry, Hungarian academy of sciences
Stanford University
Sustainable development & environmental informatics

Department of Mechanical and Environmental Informatics
TU Graz
Research focus area in environmental informatics
University of California, Irvine
Bren school environmental informatics research
University of Dayton
Center of excellence for strategic energy and environmental informatics
University of Eastern Finland
Division of environmental informatics within the department of environmental science at Kuopio Campus
University of Hamburg
Research in environmental informatics

Environmental informatics undergraduate program
University of Marburg
Physical Geography: Environmental Informatics
University of Michigan
Environmental informatics GIS and modeling graduate program *

University of South Australia The University of South Australia is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1991, it is the successor of the former South Australian Institute of Technology. Its main campuses along North Terrace are ...

Environmental Informatics postgraduate courseUniversity of Oldenburg
Division of environmental informatics
University of Sunderland
Centre for environmental informatics
University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Berlin
Research and undergraduate program

Professional Science Graduate Program: Environmental Informatics
Vienna University of Technology
Doctoral College: Environmental Informatics
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Undergraduate Program: Environmental Informatics

Collaborations

DataONE
Data Observation Network for Earth
Data Conservancy
Leading the movement to build data management tools and services across institutions and disciplines

References

{{Authority control Environmental science Information science Information technology Computational fields of study