The emerging energy web

Abstract. This position paper proposes a vision for the research activity about sustainability in global environmental change (GEC) taking place in the FuturICT flagship project. This activity will be organised in an "Exploratory", gathering a core network of European scientists from ICT, social simulation, complex systems, economics, demographics, Earth system science. These research teams will collaborate in building a self-organising network of data sources and models about GEC and in using new facilities fostering stakeholder participation. We develop examples of concrete directions for this research: world wide virtual population with demographic and some economic descriptors, ecosystem services production and distribution, governance systems at various scales.

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“…], epidemiology, energy [123], urbanisation and crime. This activity can benefit from the advances already made in epidemic models.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data and models for exploring sustainability of human well-being in global environmental change

Deffuant

Alvarez

Barreteau

et al. 2012

Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top.

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“…Strong synergies with other parts of the overall FuturICT effort (http://www.futurict.ethz.ch) are expected. Specifically, the Innovation Accelerator is envisioned to interconnect the Exloratories of Economy [64], Technology [65,66], Society [67], and Environment [68].…”

Section: Synergies With Other Exploratoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theoretical and technological building blocks for an innovation accelerator

Harmelen¹,

Kampis

Börner

et al. 2012

Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top.

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Abstract. Modern science is a main driver of technological innovation. The efficiency of the scientific system is of key importance to ensure the competitiveness of a nation or region. However, the scientific system that we use today was devised centuries ago and is inadequate for our current ICT-based society: the peer review system encourages conservatism, journal publications are monolithic and slow, data is often not a e-mail: frank.van.harmelen@gmail.com 184The European Physical Journal Special Topics available to other scientists, and the independent validation of results is limited. The resulting scientific process is hence slow and sloppy. Building on the Innovation Accelerator paper by Helbing and Balietti [1], this paper takes the initial global vision and reviews the theoretical and technological building blocks that can be used for implementing an innovation (in first place: science) accelerator platform driven by re-imagining the science system. The envisioned platform would rest on four pillars: (i) Redesign the incentive scheme to reduce behavior such as conservatism, herding and hyping; (ii) Advance scientific publications by breaking up the monolithic paper unit and introducing other building blocks such as data, tools, experiment workflows, resources; (iii) Use machine readable semantics for publications, debate structures, provenance etc. in order to include the computer as a partner in the scientific process, and (iv) Build an online platform for collaboration, including a network of trust and reputation among the different types of stakeholders in the scientific system: scientists, educators, funding agencies, policy makers, students and industrial innovators among others. Any such improvements to the scientific system must support the entire scientific process (unlike current tools that chop up the scientific process into disconnected pieces), must facilitate and encourage collaboration and interdisciplinarity (again unlike current tools), must facilitate the inclusion of intelligent computing in the scientific process, must facilitate not only the core scientific process, but also accommodate other stakeholders such science policy makers, industrial innovators, and the general public. We first describe the current state of the scientific system together with up to a dozen new key initiatives, including an analysis of the role of science as an innovation accelerator. Our brief survey will show that there exist many separate ideas and concepts and diverse stand-alone demonstrator systems for different components of the ecosystem with many parts are still unexplored, and overall integration lacking. By analyzing a matrix of stakeholders vs. functionalities, we identify the required innovations. We (non-exhaustively) discuss a few of them: Publications that are meaningful to machines, innovative reviewing processes, data publication, workflow archiving and reuse, alternative impact metrics, tools for the detection of trends, community formation and emergence, as well as modular publications, c...

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“…This multi-disciplinarity further complicates the research. However, the benefits that can result from the insights are enormous, and can drastically improve the life of future generations through components of the FuturICT project as for example the Planetary Nervous System [11], the Living Earth Simulator [10], the Global Participatory Platform [12], smart applications for cities [43], energy [40], education [24] and innovation services [22]. …”

Section: Scientific Vision and State Of The Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This implies a leap in the electrical grid complexity, and leads to the concept of smart grid, whose objective is to increase the efficiency of electrical power production, distribution and consumption. More precisely, smart grids are expected to be able to accurately predict and intelligently respond to the behavior and actions of all players connected to the grid, from electric power suppliers, to consumers, in order to efficiently deliver reliable, inexpensive, and sustainable innovative electricity services [40,41].…”

Section: The Energy Web: World Wide Green Poweringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The DESERTEC concept aims at promoting the generation of electricity in Northern Africa and the Middle East by using solar power plants and wind parks and the transmission of this electricity to Europe. The MEDGRID is promoting new high capacity electricity links around the Mediterranean [40]. In 2000, the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC) was founded in the USA as part of a cooperation between the Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories.…”

Section: Existing Initiatives and Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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