Summary: | As individuals, we are awash in an ever-expanding array of digital devices that accumulate and communicate (and sell) data on our functional needs and personal desires. Similarly, businesses and entire societies have embraced digital technologies for tasks ranging from retail purchasing to online banking. And, yet, while confronting a rapidly changing and deteriorating natural environment, digital technology management for environmental sustainability remains a hodgepodge of disconnected, at times antiquated, methods of data collection and analysis. The scale of environmental data creation is experiencing a massive explosion. It includes data from about 5,000 earth-orbiting satellites, rapidly increasing drone operations and about 20 billion scattered sensors capturing data from citizen science initiatives to regulatory compliance. In addition, underground well logs, soil characterization analyses, underwater probes, point-source monitors for air and water discharges, wildlife biomonitoring and chemical signatures add to our challenge of putting environmental data to effective use. There are three reasons why environmental sustainability is a lagging indicator for digital technology applications. First, many current data collection and evaluation methods were established at different times for different purposes. Second, they are insufficiently open, accessible or rapid in their delivery of data. Third, many traditional methods of data collection and analysis frequently fail to convert data into value that provides sufficient insight for rapid decision making. These failures are illustrated by the practice of continuing to rely upon visual inspection of water lines, bridges and other infrastructure to provide the initial indications of system failure. By contrast, smart technologies embedded within water delivery systems, highways and rivers can provide earlier, more accurate and rapid warnings that natural or physical systems are... |