Landcare Research - Manaaki Whenua

Landcare-Research -Manaaki Whenua

Informatics

Informatics is the science of working out how to access, store, process, combine, convert and deliver information in the best possible ways. Informatics grew out of information technology (IT) - the development and implementation of computer-based information systems – and IT grew out of computer science.

Now, informatics combines with virtually every other discipline to form more sub-specialisations.

These include:

  • Bioinformatics, dealing with the development and maintenance of databases to store biological information
  • Geoinformatics, concentrating on spatial information of various types including images, maps, and surveyed points
  • Ecoinformatics, concerned with information in ecology and environmental sciences

Landcare Research Informatics staff work with other environmental, biological, and social scientists to help them make the best use of their information resources both for their immediate, and for future, applications.