CoastGls'99: geornatics and coastal environment
E-commerce
One thread which surprisingly has not been in greater evidence here
is the whole idea of electronic commerce. It is an issue that is becoming
more and more important, and surely it applies just as well to coastal
data. The implications of using coastal data as a marketable commodit y are issues that need to be considered as a matter of sorne urgency.
The closest we came to discussing these important questions was when
the movement or flows of information were touched on by a couple of
speakers.
In this latter context, it seems worthwhile to suggest the metaphor of
"data ecology". The name, and the imagery it evokes, are appropriate:
in ecology, you have primary and secondary producers, you have
different trophic levels, consumers and so on, and you get conversion
and enrichment in the process. We do also have primary and secondary
producers of data, and consumers of data, and so on. Couldn't this be
an alternative way of looking at the circulation and use of data and
information in our society?
The World Wide Web
Everyone is talking about the Web these days: it is a bandwagon that
we all appear to be leaping onto for fear ofbeing somehow left behind.
In the process, we are investing a lot of time, effort and money in our
endeavours, but are we adequately future-proofing our investments?
Is the Web sufficiently mature (both as a concept and as a technology)
for us to place so much reliance on it? There might be great potential
danger in us all going so rapidly and eagerly down this one particular
path, without leaving an "escape route" in case the bubble bursts?
Extending GIS
As far as applying GIS to the coastal zone is concerned, l think we aIl
now accept that current technology is making definite inroads towards
solving many problems, but equally there remain many issues still
unresolved. As alluded to above, very few GIS are genuinely optimised
for coastal, let alone, marine applications. It is surely worthwhile
looking at the several alternative technologies available, or emerging
in GIS, and consider how - if - they could offer solutions to sorne of
these issues, and advances over our current ways of doing things. These
alternatives include Cellular Automata, Voronoi Tessalations and related
data structures, Genetic Aigorithms and Virtual Reality (VR). This
last, in particular, undoubtedly represents a technology of the longer-term
future, but sustainable coastal management could benefit enormously from
the successful and imaginative application of VR. If it is physically
impossible to access a lot of the coastal zone, perhaps VR could "take
us there" instead?
310
E-commerce
One thread which surprisingly has not been in greater evidence here
is the whole idea of electronic commerce. It is an issue that is becoming
more and more important, and surely it applies just as well to coastal
data. The implications of using coastal data as a marketable commodit y are issues that need to be considered as a matter of sorne urgency.
The closest we came to discussing these important questions was when
the movement or flows of information were touched on by a couple of
speakers.
In this latter context, it seems worthwhile to suggest the metaphor of
"data ecology". The name, and the imagery it evokes, are appropriate:
in ecology, you have primary and secondary producers, you have
different trophic levels, consumers and so on, and you get conversion
and enrichment in the process. We do also have primary and secondary
producers of data, and consumers of data, and so on. Couldn't this be
an alternative way of looking at the circulation and use of data and
information in our society?
The World Wide Web
Everyone is talking about the Web these days: it is a bandwagon that
we all appear to be leaping onto for fear ofbeing somehow left behind.
In the process, we are investing a lot of time, effort and money in our
endeavours, but are we adequately future-proofing our investments?
Is the Web sufficiently mature (both as a concept and as a technology)
for us to place so much reliance on it? There might be great potential
danger in us all going so rapidly and eagerly down this one particular
path, without leaving an "escape route" in case the bubble bursts?
Extending GIS
As far as applying GIS to the coastal zone is concerned, l think we aIl
now accept that current technology is making definite inroads towards
solving many problems, but equally there remain many issues still
unresolved. As alluded to above, very few GIS are genuinely optimised
for coastal, let alone, marine applications. It is surely worthwhile
looking at the several alternative technologies available, or emerging
in GIS, and consider how - if - they could offer solutions to sorne of
these issues, and advances over our current ways of doing things. These
alternatives include Cellular Automata, Voronoi Tessalations and related
data structures, Genetic Aigorithms and Virtual Reality (VR). This
last, in particular, undoubtedly represents a technology of the longer-term
future, but sustainable coastal management could benefit enormously from
the successful and imaginative application of VR. If it is physically
impossible to access a lot of the coastal zone, perhaps VR could "take
us there" instead?
310