Big Data and the Environment: A Survey of Initiatives and Observations Moving Forward

• Date: 01 November 2014

44 ELR 10984 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 11-2014

Big Data and

the Environment:

A Survey of

Initiatives and

Observations

Moving Forward

by Linda K. Breggin and

Judith Amsalem

Linda Breggin is a Senior Attorney and Judith Amsalem

is a former Research Associate, both at ELI.



is Article provides a general introduction to what

is commonly referred to as “big data,” and oers an

outline of over 60 initiatives underway in the public

and private sectors to use big data to forward environ-

mental protection. is initial survey is not intended

to provide a comprehensive list of all eorts currently

underway, but instead to illustrate the range of ini-

tiatives and approaches used by government agencies,

nongovernmental organizations, and industry. e

Article also discusses some of the legal and policy con-

cerns associated with the use of big data to advance

environmental protection.

I. Background on Big Data

A. Def‌inition of Big Data

e term “big data” was rst used in 1997, ma rking the

increasing trend of rapid data growth.1 e ability to col-

lect, store, and analyze data turned a corner in 1996 when,

according to R.J.T. Morris and B.J. Truskowski in e Evo-

, “digital storage became more cost-

eective for storing data than paper.”2

Although there is no consensus on a denition of big

data, the most common denition references the “three

Vs”—volume, velocity, and variety—and was introduced

in 2001 by META Group, Inc. (now Gart ner, Inc.).3

Gartner currently denes big data as “high-volume, high-

velocity and high-variety information a ssets that demand

cost-eective, innovative forms of information processing

for enhanced insight and decision mak ing.”4 e three-V

model has been widely adopted, including by the National

Consortium for Data Science, a group that includes the

U.S. Environmental Protection A gency (EPA), academic

1. e term “big data” wa s rs t pub lished by Nati onal Aeronautics and

Space Admi nistration (NA SA) researchers Michael Cox and David Ells-

worth, wri ting:

Visualization provides an interesting challenge for computer sys-

tems: data sets are generally quite large, taxing the capacities of

main memory, local disk, and even remote disk. We call this the

problem of big data. When data sets do not t in main memory (in

core), or when they do not t even on local disk, the most common

solution is to acquire more resources.

Michael Cox & David Ellsworth, 

, Proceedings of the 8th IEEE Visualization ’97

Conference 235 (1997), http://www.evl.uic.edu/cavern/rg/20040525_re-

nambot/Viz/parallel_volviz/paging_outofcore_viz97.pdf.  Gil Press,

, F, May 9, 2013, available at http://

www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2013/05/09/a-very-short-history-of-big-data/.

2. R.J.T. Morris & B.J. Truskowski, , 42 IBM

S. J. 205 (2003), available at http://signallake.com/innovation/morris.

pdf.

3. Doug Laney, 3D Data Management: Controlling Data Volume, Velocity and

Variety, META Group, Inc., Feb. 6, 2001, http://blogs.gartner.com/doug-

laney/les/2012/01/ad949-3D-Data-Management-Controlling-Data-Vol-

ume-Velocity-and-Variety.pdf.

4. Gartner, Inc., Big Data, IT Glossary, http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/

big-data/ (last visited Sept. 11, 2014).

   





          

 





           

         :

Linda K. Breggin et al.,     

the Environment, in B D, B C  E-

B P M (H. Kumar Jayasuriya ed., 2014).

Copyright © 2014 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.