Eric Nost

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Associate Professor of Geography, Environment, and Geomatics | University of Guelph

Contacts

Projects

Welcome!

I research how data technologies inform environmental governance. New kinds of data-generating sensors and data-synthesizing algorithms are becoming central to everyday life and may prove transformational in policy too. A key challenge for geographers in the coming years is assessing these technologies’ promise to help society solve sustainability issues related to toxic pollution, food security, climate change adaptation, and ecosystem services conservation. This will be done by understanding their human dimensions - their design, use, maintenance, and effects on society - alongside other governance trends such as marketization and metrification. It will involve understanding how these data systems came to be but also experimenting with them towards more just and equitable ends.

My work contributes to the field of political ecology and is supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, SSHRC. I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in nature-society geography and methods, including in Guelph’s Master’s of Conservation Leadership program. I am a member of the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI), where we bring people together to analyze publicly available socio-environmental data and track the portrayal of climate change issues on the web.

Projects

Digital Conservation

Big data and related data collection tools such as acoustic sensors; machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms; dashboards and platforms for sharing data – these all constitute “digital conservation.” Digital technologies have the potential to make conservation more holistic, responsive, and participatory. However, we hear a lot about the promises of digital conservation and less about the challenges. Is access to digital conservation democratic? Are outcomes lining up with expectations? In general, what do conservationists actually think about and do with digital tools?

Environmental Data Justice

Recruitment

I am recruiting Master’s and/or PhD students to start in Fall 2026 on the above projects. Prospective students should be interested in conducting interviews, document analysis, survey, and/or statistical and spatial analysis for their research. I can offer training in communication skills - including mapping, data visualization, and public writing - and in the scholarly fields of political ecology and science and technology studies. Students would have the opportunity to collaborate with the Environmental and Data Governance Initiative and other partners. Former graduate students have gone on to work in academia and in the conservation and environmental NGO sectors.

I welcome interested candidates to email me with a brief statement of interest, an unofficial transcript, and a writing/research sample.

I especially encourage applications by individuals from justice-seeking groups and those underrepresented in higher education. The Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics at Guelph and I aim to foster welcoming and collaborative spaces that value diversity and wellness. More about the Department:

Webmapping and other programming projects

Collaborative

Other

Selected Papers

Data governance and infrastructure

Environmental governance actors - states, corporations, conservation groups, farmers, and so on - struggle to get the information they want. There’s more and more data out there every day, but it’s often siloed. Even when it’s available, it’s not necessarily relevant and there typically isn’t the time or money to make sense of it. Governing nature, it turns out, means governing data. Who collects environmental data and manages environmental databases, and who pays for it all? These questions tend to crystallize in data infrastructures.

Digital practice and praxis

Decision-makers increasingly aim for what they call “data-driven” governance. But data doesn’t “drive” as much as it affords. It has to be learned from, through institutions that allow decision-makers to access expertise and communicate their expectations. Who are the users of digital technologies? What can they learn and do with their tools? How can data serve public ends, in and beyond the classroom?

Digital natures

What does nature become when we interact with it via digital tools?

Methods for political ecology

How can political ecologists sharpen or build new methods for understanding environmental governance?