Foundations of sustainability information representation theory: spatial–temporal dynamics of sustainable systems

A critical need exists to broaden and deepen sustainability information foundations that can foster growth of actionable knowledge about human–environment relations to address grand challenges in sustainable system domains such as sustainable development, social–ecological systems, and hazards influencing global environmental change. Broad-based information is needed to integrate across domains to address sustainability problems cast as complex systems problems that vary widely across space and time. Deep-based information is needed to address nuanced and contextual relationships that exist within and across domains. Both broad and deep information together are needed to better address spatial–temporal dynamics in complex sustainable systems. According to many publications, the concept of sustainable systems is considered to be at the core of self-organizing systems; and in turn, the concept of self-organizing systems is at the core of social–ecological systems, coupled natural–human systems, and human–en...