Due to the growing evidence of the recent acceleration of climate change, and the related energy sustainability questions that are eventually raised, interdisciplinary research regarding climate change has grown between Geographical Information Scientists and energy researchers, broadly defined.
Three critical
issues offer significant opportunities for new synergistic research between
GIScientists and energy sustainability researchers;
1) the problem
of carbon estimation and inventory
2) questions of
new energy infrastructure placement and transition
3) household
energy conservation and efficiency
These categories
of research contain issues regarding scale, representation, complexity, and
other core GIScience themes that energy researchers could use GIScientists’
help solving.
GIScience is a
diverse and interdisciplinary field that draws from computer scientists as well
as engineers, along with the cognitive, physical, policy, and social sciences. Energy
sustainability researchers are drawn to their research for many different
reasons, such as the quest to understand the physical and chemical properties
of energy sources, or how energy is used by biotic organisms and machines. They
also consider the viability of alternative energy sources, the implications of
energy use, and the policies of it’s management. Geospatial analysis techniques
often used in GIScience could help greatly those energy researcher’s ability to
express their findings in a more meaningful form.
Although there
have been interactions previously between GIScientists and energy sustainability
researchers, the opportunities for these fields to expand through mutually
beneficial collaborations are increasingly obvious and should be capitalized
on.
"Toward an
Integrated GIScience and Energy Research Agenda"
Mark W. Horner,*
Tingting Zhao,* and Timothy S. Chapin+
*Department of Geography and the Institute for
Energy Systems, Economics and Sustainability, Florida State University
+Department of Urban and Regional Planning and
the Institute for Energy Systems, Economics and Sustainability, Florida State
University
Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 101(4) 2011, p. 764-774 
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