Digital technology and sport ecology

All human activities are dependent to some extent on the natural environment and the resources that it provides. At the most basic level, the natural environment provides the raw materials needed to build and maintain all sport spaces (e.g., land, grass, metals use in equipment, plants for making shirts). It also provides clean air and fresh water, which are necessary for safe physical activity. As the use of digital technologies expands into every aspect of modern life, questions arise regarding whether and how digital technologies impact athletes’ and fans’ relationships with nature. The literature examining this intersection is scant, but we’ve identified a few specific applications of digital sport innovation that are changing the way sports are managed and played. These include weather and disaster monitoring, air quality monitoring, digital technologies for facility management, and digital technologies to improve the user's (athlete) experience in natural environments. We discuss each area in this chapter and conclude with a brief discussion on the potential and the unknowns in this space, and a word of caution for fast-tech-development that may run counter to healthy human-environment relationships in the sport context.