Big Data and Climate Change

Abstract

Climate science as a data-intensive subject has overwhelmingly affected by the era of big data and relevant technological revolutions. The big successes of big data analytics in diverse areas over the past decade have also prompted the expectation of big data and its efficacy on the big problem—climate change. As an emerging topic, climate change has been at the forefront of the big climate data analytics implementations and exhaustive research have been carried out covering a variety of topics. This paper aims to present an outlook of big data in climate change studies over the recent years by investigating and summarising the current status of big data applications in climate change related studies. It is also expected to serve as a one-stop reference directory for researchers and stakeholders with an overview of this trending subject at a glance, which can be useful in guiding future research and improvements in the exploitation of big climate data.

The Applicability of Big Data in Climate Change Research: The Importance of System of Systems Thinking

“…The significance of Big Data in climate-related studies is greatly recognized and its techniques are widely used to observe and monitor changes on a global scale. It facilitates understanding and forecasting to support adaptive decision-making as well as optimize models and structures (Hassani et al, 2019).…”

“…However, review articles have explored the potential for utilizing Big Data techniques in diverse areas, moreover, comprehensive overviews about climate change are becoming less of a focus. Even though data-intensive research applications may seems to be unbalanced among disciplines (Hassani et al, 2019), the dynamism and complexity of climate issues must not be neglected. This complexity brings about an interdisciplinary approach and the intertwining of diverse disciplines, to which the System of Systems concept (climate computing) is the urgent answer.…”

Smart and Sustainable? Positioning Adaptation to Climate Change in the European Smart City

“…Furthermore, merging data from weather, traffic, and environmental sensors has the potential to manage air quality and deliver more accurate weather forecasting. Big Data generated by these sensors can make forecasting more optimized for concrete actions in adaptive policy-making [32]. Improved air quality and reduced vulnerability to heatwaves are possible outcomes of more accurate and real-time environmental data, while telemedicine, remote education, and public health surveillance using mobile devices can also make a city more adaptive to climate impacts [33].…”

Big Data and Energy Poverty Alleviation

“…As another energy poverty pressure factor, big data analytical solutions have been developed to model and forecast climatic and geo-ecological situations. Big data mining techniques are developed to model and forecast climate change based on global observations from earth and satellite information [102,103]. The same models are developed, based on big data, for geo-ecological forecasting [104].…”