Burning Issue

This month's hot topic:

A suggested new aspect for the New Generation of Digital Earth - Human behaviour and decision making

Based on harmonised methodology, survey on decision making mechanisms and identification of decision nodal points, monitoring and analysis of the socio-economic and environmental impact of power, the influence of human interest groups from local to global should be also part of the aspects in the new generation Digital Earth.

In order to enhance the comprehensiveness of the modelling and simulation of the most significant processes which have impacts on the socioeconomic and sustainable environmental status of the Earth on mid- and long-term, the following aspects should also be taken into account considering the new generation of Digital Earth as described by Craglia et al (2008):

- In order to identify the critical nodes of the decision making procedures of interest groups on local, regional, national, supranational and global level, such as governments, the private sector, NGOs, science and any of their combinations, including G2G, B2B, etc., attention should be paid to monitoring (i.e. to survey and map on a temporal basis) the operational structures of institutions, organisations and networks providing the capabilities to model, simulate and analyse their potential influences and impacts on socio-economic issues and sustainable environment.

- Without attempting to retrospectively analyse or predict the impacts and potential influences of human decision processes and mechanisms, even the modelling and simulation of the processes in the Digital Earth context will not be sufficiently accurate.

- The approach and methodology to be developed could provide a series of shorter term spin-off results contributing, for example, to investigation of human decision-making and its potential social, economic and environmental consequences, to ensure more transparency of the decision making mechanisms and current practice in the public institutions contributing to a more efficient public administration and e-based governance in the Information Society.

- To better understand human decisions with regard to biosphere interactions.

- To monitor large investments and complex infrastructural, industrial or commercial constructions having an impact on a sustainable environment.

- To provide more efficient tools for fighting corruption and fraud on local, regional, national, supranational and global levels.

Advanced geographic information, remote sensing, and Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) related technologies are efficient tools to facilitate the implementation of this approach, but coordination, cooperation and collaboration are the major challenges we face.

This proposal was inspired by the lecture given by Mike Goodchild at the ISDE-6 Closing Day and will be submitted to the authors of the paper published in IJSDR in 2008 in the Digital Earth context. Some recent editorial corrections made by Roger Longhorn is acknowledged.

Gábor Remetey-Fülöpp
HUNAGI - October 2009

Responses to gabor.remetey@gmail.com

Gabor Remety-Fulopp