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

Abstract

Environmental problem solving is very much an infonnation processing activity handling a wide range of environmental data from various sections and of different structure. In this review paper a typology of environmental processing systems is given and the background, terminology and main issues of a novel discipline of applied Computer Science -more recently named as Environmental Informatics -introduced. A selected Environmental Informatics project is presented dealing with the development of a knowledge-based simulation frame system supporting modeling and simulation of environmental systems. It was employed as prototyping tool for designing a specific table-based modeling system for road traffic emission analysis. Finally the emerging research scene of Environmental Informatics in Germany and on the international scale is discussed.

Topics in Environmental Software Systems

“…The first symposium [4] developed from 1987 on into a conference named "Symposium Informatik im Umweltschutz" which later became the "EnviroInfo" conference series. In parallel a working group named "Informatik im Umweltschutz" (computer science for environmental protection) 1 was installed as a committee of the German Informatics Society 2 . That working group can be considered as the nucleus of the field in the early days.…”

“…For the remainder of this article I shall call it "field of work" or just "the field" because this sounds neutral enough. Starting early on, there have been attempts to classify what environmental software systems are, to provide an overview of research and application, like for instance in the first paper [1] of the first ISESS book [2]. An early book [3] is structuring the field according to the dividing line between technology and application [3].…”

“…Seeing it today, some material looks naïve, but I have always been surprised how many of the hard problems which our field is dealing with today have already been identified 25 years ago, and on what impressive level, considering that informatics as a discipline was in its infancies. My own entry into the field was on September 30 and October 1,1986, when my boss at the time, Dr. Andreas Jaeschke of KfK (today Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT) organised the first recognised scientific event regarding environmental software systems, figure 1. It was my first day at work after university.…”

Recent history and development of environmental information systems and databases in Germany

“…environmental databases, visualisation of environmental data, tools for environmental modeling and simulation, environmental information systems for communities and, more recently, for the industry, or hypermedia in environmental protection). The results were widely published (see references in Page, 1995). Since its foundation, major shifts in focus have taken place in the committee:…”