Application of Big Data and Geographic Information Systems for Sustainable Ecological Management
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023) | Viewed by 1270
Special Issue Editors
Interests: monitoring; data modelling; GIS; protected area management; habitat selectivity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Sustainable ecological management plays an important role in guaranteeing a healthy environment for humans and biodiversity. Its successful implementation is based on a complex system of relations, rules, opportunities and priorities, which depend on different stakeholders and national or regional policies.
Sustainable ecological management has a considerable economic impact through ecosystem services influencing the daily lives of local communities. If we take into account all ecological factors, then our results-based decisions could save lives. An example is the mangrove forests, which are being cut down to create marine fisheries; these natural habitats turned out to be the best solution for tsunami attenuations and for increasing fish and seafood stocks. Considering this example, and many other ecosystem services which nature provides for us, we must analyze the existing data before making decisions for economic development. If a given analysis does not include all the necessary aspects, then the costs for local communities could grow considerably, outweighing the benefits of our decisions.
A huge amount of data is collected on a regular basis in a diverse array of fields, such as weather, hydrology, biodiversity, pollution, transport, economics and many others; however, the majority of these data are not analyzed together. Doing so could enable the generation of an integrated answer which could contribute significantly to the development of sustainable ecological management. Geographic information systems have significant integrative power and the ability to bring together these large datasets into one, and to analyze the relations between them. These results could forecast other costs which could be occur should our decisions/investments be made without rigorous analyses.
Conservation genomics works towards the protection of biodiverse resources by applying genetic data to real-life actions. Large, whole-genome sequencing projects, such as the Earth BioGenome Project and the European Reference Genome Atlas, will generate enormous amounts of data that need to be joined with ecological and economic factors for an integrated response. Biodiversity conservation, animal and plant biotechnology, fisheries and agriculture must all benefit from these projects and the data-driven decisions that they generate. Additionally, the involvement of local communities in citizen science projects, which generate and contribute their own data to the decision-making process, can enable communities to ensure sustainability.
Sustainable ecological management could be a solution to ecosystem challenges of the present day. It is an approach which focuses on rising resources demand, population increase and climate variability. In this context, the duty of the scientific community is to analyze the available data in order to inform decision makers in choosing the best approaches for our local, regional and national development.
Thus, this Special Issue seeks to understand the importance of large databases from different domains—biology, geography, economy, agriculture, policy and others—using geographic information systems and through advancing data-driven solutions. We invite the submission of papers focusing on analyzing the contribution of Big Data to the development of sustainable ecological management strategies, directions and policies. Contributions that analyze large datasets from different domains in order to contribute to sustainable ecological management are especially welcomed.
Dr. Emanuel Ștefan Baltag
Dr. Andrei Ștefan
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- ecological modelling
- climate change
- ecosystem services
- long-term data
- protected area network
