An Information Infrastructure for Sustainability Science

Managing our planet's ecosystems to meet demands for increased agricultural productivity and ecological resilience will require new and fundamentally different knowledge systems. In the industrial paradigm of the 20th century, agricultural land was managed for maximum short-term yield. Innovations focused on yield and yield potential, with little or no awareness for unintended, often foreseeable consequences. While productivity remains a key objective, we must develop analytic systems that can identify better management options for the full range of monetized and non-monetized inputs, outputs and outcomes. This highlights the need for fundamentally new knowledge systems including information management infrastructures, which effectively support decision-making on landscapes. We recognize an urgent need to envision and implement these systems, calling for investment in sustainability science for our productive landscapes.

Opportunities to integrate, extend and align various existing efforts will enhance the utility of the enormous investments in data collection and modeling toward informed decision-making on the landscape. To further the goal of an information infrastructure for sustainability science applied to landscapes, three distinct but interlocking domains can be distinguished: 1) a domain of data, information and knowledge assets; 2) a domain that houses relevant models, model ensembles and frameworks in a structured and curated space; and 3) a domain that includes decision support tools and systems tailored to frame particular trade-offs. The domain of data must be accessible, accurate, coherent, consistent, durable, free and open and whose assets define an essential foundation for the goal of sustainable management of the planet for long-term sufficiency and stability.

To meet these challenges, the need for a coherent open source, open standard, open access, open content, modular information infrastructure oriented to support choices we make on landscapes is clear. We have defined the scope of this challenge, managing choices within agroecosystems, recognizing that any decision on any landscape involves multidimensional trade-offs that will be evaluated in diverse decision-making contexts. A cohesive, coherent and targeted approach toward an integrated knowledge management infrastructure for sustainability science applied to land management is essential to move more rapidly toward productive resilient landscapes.