ICTs for e-Environment: adapting to climate change and resource depletion

1. ICTs for e-Environment: adapting to climate change and resource depletion Richard Labelle (rlab@sympatico.ca) ICT Strategist & ITU-D Consultant The Aylmer Group Gatineau, Canada

2. Presentation prepared with help of previous presentations prepared by: • Robert Shaw, ITU • Kerstin Ludwig, ITU • Leila Perez-Chavolla, ITU

3. Overview of technologies

4. ICTs for e-Environment Report Objective: Provide guidelines for developing countries on the use of ICTs for better management and protection of the environment as a key part of their development process, with particular focus on climate change Examines six areas of ICT use: Environmental Observation Analysis Planning Management and Protection ICT Mitigation and Capacity Building http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb 4

9. Key ICT capabilities • Increasingly powerful micro processors: • Computational power as well as increasingly intelligent algorithms for modeling of environmental systems; • Geographic information systems (GIS): • For visualization and interpretation of the datasets from observation systems; • Increasing bandwidth and networked communications, processing and storage capabilities: • Facilitate data sharing and undertaking computationally-intensive tasks through the use of Grid and Cloud computing. • Satellite and direct sensor technology applications: • For recording and storing massive amounts of geographical and historical information with increasing resolution and geographic coverage .

10. ICTs for managing the environment • To help observe, understand and learn about the environment • To share information and data as well as processing power: • Data warehouses, clearing houses and data/information servers; environmental networks and grids; etc. • To facilitate and help coordinate environmental decision-making and management: • including environmental early warning, risk assessment, mitigation and management, etc. • To help mitigate environmental impact.

12. ICTs • Software such as database management systems (DBMSs) (GIS) • Fibre optic technologies • Intelligent physical and embedded devices connected to the Internet: smart sensors, sensor networks, etc. • Rapid and sophisticated chip sets and processors • Rapid, inexpensive and increasingly high capacity storage devices • Wireless technologies

14. ICTs: Web based services (SOA) Grid Connectivity • Building applications that span organizations; • Creating virtual organizations; • Seamless integration of datasets and processing capabilities; • Hiding (virtualising) or sharing use of resources, network, infrastructure;

15. ICTs: Web based services (SOA) – cont’d (1) Web Services • Glue for heterogeneous platforms/applications/systems; • Cross- and intra-organization integration; • Standards-based distributed computing; • Interoperability; • Composability; • Based on the idea of Service Orientation.

16. ICTs: Web based services (SOA) – cont’d (2) Web Applications • Blogging, social networking; • Data processing/transformation; • Content upload, sharing, discovery; • Storage, computation, messaging; • Identity and presence management; • Mashups for data sharing; • Wikis and innovative user-based data entry.

17. Key applications • LANDSAT (USA), Spot Satellite (France), etc. • World Weather Watch (WMO) • Global Observing System (WMO) • World Database for Protected Areas (UNEP-WCMC) • Global Biodiversity Information Facility (UNEP-WCMC) • ARC-Info (ESRI) • Google Earth (Google maps) - geomapping • Microsoft Virtual Earth - geomapping • Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

18. Key applications • Clearing house mechanism (CHM) for environmental agreements: biodiversity, climate change, etc. • Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE): Yale, UNEP, major publishers (PPP)

20. Google Earth, Quito, 20090709

21. Google Earth, Quito, 20090709