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Data Rich, Information Poor

Kaplan, Paul G.

Surviving in a data-rich environment means understanding the difference between data and information. This paper reviews an environmental case study that illustrates that understanding and shows its importance. In this study, a decision problem was stated in terms of au economic-objective fimction. The function contains a term that defines the stochastic relationship between the decision and the information obtained during field chamctetition for an environmental contaminant. Data is defied as samples drawn or experimental realizations of a mudom fimction. Information is defined as the quantitative change in the value of the objective fiction as a result of the sample.