Crowdsourcing, volunteered geographic information (VGI) and citizens acting as sensors are currently being used in Australia via GeoWeb 2.0 applications for environmental sustainability purposes. This paper situates the origins of these practices, phenomena and concepts within the intersection of Web 2.0 and emerging online and mobile spatial technologies, herein called the GeoWeb 2.0. The significance of these origins is akin to a revolution in the way information is created, curated and distributed, attributed with transformative social impacts. Applications for environmental sustainability have the potential to be similarly transformative or disruptive. However, Web 2.0 is not described or conceptualised consistently within the literature. Australian examples implementing the GeoWeb 2.0 for environmental sustainability are diverse, but the reasons for this are difficult to ascertain. There is little published by the creators of such applications on their decisions, and Australian research is nascent, occurring across a variety of disciplinary approaches. While a substantial research literature emanates from North America and Europe, its transferability to Australia requires careful assessment. This paper contributes to this assessment by providing a review of relevant literature in the context of Australian examples for environmental sustainability.
History
Publication title
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Pagination
1058-1076
ISSN
2220-9964
Department/School
School of Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences
Publisher
MDPI AG
Place of publication
Switzerland
Rights statement
Copyright 2014 The Authors-this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 3.0)
Repository Status
Open
Socio-economic Objectives
Other environmental management not elsewhere classified