2019 Volume 32 Issue 2 Pages 26-35
This paper aims to discuss the possibility that various information and communication technologies (ICT) should be effectively utilized and progressed in environmental science. For this purpose, at first, introducing the most important concept of “super smart society” in the 5th Japan’s Science and Technology Basic Plan (Cabinet approval in 2016), the advanced information and telecommunications network society in recent Japan was described, and the role of social media GIS in such a society was pointed out. Based on these, as one of the studies utilizing ICT in environmental science and disaster management, the development and practical application of a social media GIS as a disaster information system, which integrated Social media and Web-GIS into a single system, assuming the measures of prevention and reduction against earthquakes. Additionally, referring the examples of other academic fields, the possibility and limitation of ICT utilization in environmental science were discussed. Finally, briefly describing the outlines of the author’s recent studies using ICT, the following two future research issues are summarized. (1) the developed systems should be applied and implemented in environmental science, (2) various technologies in information engineering should be adopted in environmental science to develop a new academic field.
