Visualization and Sustainable Development Decision Making

Visualization has emerged as a technique for searching through large volumes of data communicating complex patterns, and providing a formal framework for data presentation and exploratory analysis. Combining the power of multimedia dynamic representation of spatial information with interactive engagement of users, visualization allows both experts and non-experts to perform exploratory analysis and to communicate spatial information in graphical form. Geospatial information relevant for sustainable development often tends to be heterogeneous, complex, not directly comparable, and correlated in ways that may not be apparent without the use of visualization techniques. Furthermore, visualization is a component of geographic information systems as a tool to display multiple sustainable development scenarios, and thus, decision support techniques. Visualization of geospatial information refers to the visual perception of various types of graphic representation of data ranging from static to dynamic presentation (cartographic visualization) to exploratory data analysis (scientific visualization). A number of visualization projects are carried out in the Mapping Services Branch in collaboration with the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing of the Earth Science Sector, Natural Resources Canada. The projects focus primarily on web-based, interactive, dynamic representation of information, suitable for effective communication of geospatial concepts in support of sustainable development decision making. The general objective of the visualization projects is to explore, develop and implement visualization techniques capable of translating complex scientific information into a form that readily communicates sustainable development to various user groups, in particular to policy and decision makers within the government of Canada. This paper summarizes the sustainable development policy of Natural Resources Canada, discusses the impact of new technologies on cartographic visualization, and presents selected examples of new multimedia and multimodal techniques used for effective communication to decision makers. The Sustainable Development Policy of Natural Resources Canada Sustainable development was originally defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development, the Brundtland Commission, in a document entitled “Our Common Future”, as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs”. In 1989,