Prototype System for Multidisciplinary Shared Cyberinfrastructure: Chesapeake Bay Environmental Observatory
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 13, Issue 10
Abstract
A prototype system for a Chesapeake Bay Environmental Observatory (CBEO) is under development by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the domains of environmental engineering, marine science, hydrology, ecology, and computer science. The vision is to provide new means of coupling and synthesizing field sampled and model generated data in a way that will open up new data sources to researchers and managers interested in understanding and resolving some currently unanswered questions and problems concerning hypoxia in the Chesapeake Bay. It will do so by developing advanced cyberinfrastructure to provide uniform nationwide access to new tools and a wide variety of data of disparate type, scale, and resolution, in both spatial and temporal domains, including model-derived data from past runs of major computational models for Chesapeake Bay hydrodynamics and water quality. Some key goals of the prototype project are to resolve the existing data source heterogeneities such that all relevant data are accessible through one interface, to archive and facilitate the analysis of model input and output files, and to provide new shared tools for data analysis, all with the goal of transforming the way scientific research and science-based management is conducted on the Chesapeake Bay. There are four project teams operating separately but in close and continuous communication. The teams’ objectives are to make simultaneous and parallel advances in (1) environmental observatory network design and nationwide network access to Bay data (CBEO:N); (2) furthering the educational missions and outreach at the host institutions (CBEO:E); (3) providing a test-bed application that will allow the development and testing of new cyberinfrastructure and data analysis tools (CBEO:T); and (4) using all of the above-mentioned advances on focused science questions to demonstrate the transformative nature of the CBEO for addressing research questions and improvingmanagement approaches for large coastal systems that are heavily affected by humans. Finally, this CBEO cyberinfrastructure development is geared toward ensuring that the envisioned system is integrated into larger nationwide environmental observatory network initiatives (e.g., Water and Environmental Research System, Ocean Research Interactive Observatory Networks, National Ecological Observatory Network, and Long Term Ecological Research) thus helping to lead the way toward the development of a continental-scale environmental observatory network.
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Acknowledgments
The CBEO project is funded by the National Science Foundation through Grant Number NSF0618986. The CBEO team would also like to thank Gary Schenk from the EPA Chesapeake Bay Research Program and Carl Cerco from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for making available large numerical modeling data sets as well as for their continued invaluable input to this project.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 13 • Issue 10 • October 2008
Pages: 960 - 970
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 14, 2007
Accepted: Dec 5, 2007
Published online: Oct 1, 2008
Published in print: Oct 2008
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