Pivotal principles for digital earth development in the twenty-first century

ABSTRACT

Reductionist thinking will no longer suffice to address contemporary, complex challenges that defy sectoral, national, or disciplinary boundaries. Furthermore, lessons learned from the past cannot be confidently used to predict outcomes or guide future actions. The authors propose that the confluence of a number of technology and social disruptors presents a pivotal moment in history to enable real time, accelerated, and integrated action that can adequately support a ‘future earth’ through transformational solutions. Building on more than a decade of dialogues hosted by the International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE), and evolving a briefing note presented to delegates of Pivotal 2015, the paper presents an emergent context for collectively addressing spatial information, sustainable development, and good governance through three guiding principles for enabling prosperous living in the twenty-first century. These are: (1) open data, (2) real-world context, and (3) informed visualization for decision support. The paper synthesizes an interdisciplinary dialogue to create a credible and positive future vision of collaborative and transparent action for the betterment of humanity and planet. It is intended that these Pivotal Principles can be used as an elegant framework for action toward the Digital Earth vision, across local, regional, and international communities and organizations.

KEYWORDS:

• Geo-spatial information
• transformation toward sustainability
• Pivotal Principles

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the significant provocations, information and time provided by a number of colleagues over the last year and delegates at the Pivotal 2015 International Executive Summit who helped to the created the context for the Pivotal Principles to arise. Specifically, this paper has been developed from a ‘Special Brief to Delegates of the Pivotal 2015 International Executive Summit’ held in Brisbane in June 2015. Delegates were invited to consider the thoughts and principles offered in this brief and provide feedback to the Pivotal Team. The authors thank the 26 individuals for their detailed review comments in this capacity. Individual contribution to the brief and subsequent paper has also been provided by Dr Anne Fitzgerald, Dr Brian Fitzgerald, and Neale Hooper (founders of Australian Creative Commons), Alistair Byrom, Lee Hellen and Richard Simpson (Spatial Industries Business Association (Spatial Industries Business Association) Queensland), Professor Ian Mackinnon, Gavin Winter, Associate Professor Bob Owen, Dr Peta Mitchell, and Professor Michael Rosemann (Queensland University of Technology), Dr Charlie Hargroves (Curtin University), Dr Bob Corell (Global Environment Technology Foundation), Professor Stuart Phinn (University of Queensland), Graeme Newton (Deloitte), and Ian McLeod (Ergon).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.