Collaborative Research: CUAHSI/CLEANER Demonstration and Development of a Test-bed Digital Observatory for the Susquehanna River Basin and Chesapeake Bay

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Collaborative Proposal: CUAHSI/CLEANER Demonstration and Development of a Test-bedDigital Observatory for the Susquehanna River Basin and Chesapeake BayIntroduction: The proposed project will demonstrate the applicability and utility of a EnvironmentalDigital Observatory (EDO) design whose components are currently being developed by the HydrologicInformation System (HIS) group of CUAHSI for use by both the CLEANER and CUAHSI communities.While the 4 components of the EDO system have been identified (Environmental Digital Library (EDL),Environmental Observations Database (EOD), Digital Environment-Shed (DES), Environmental AnalysisSystem (EAS)), only some of the components are currently in a state to be deployed in a beta-testingmode, most notably the EDL and to some extent the DES. Because of the complexity of the systemcomponents it is impossible to produce a roll-out product that would meet all the expectations from thestart. Hence, it is crucial that these components are put to a test in a test-bed environment to investigatehow the components behave, what pieces are missing, what additional developments need to be carriedout, and most importantly whether they are effective for the purpose they were designed. Because of theenvisioned scope in funding and time as well as the availability and current state of the developments, thisproject will focus on the first of the components (the EDL), which constitutes the base layer upon whichall of the other components rest.Objectives: The objectives are to: (1) test and demonstrate the usefulness of a EDL for inclusion in theEDO as applied to nutrient fluxes in both the Susquehanna River Basin (SRB) and Chesapeake Bay (CB)for which a data gap analysis will be performed (2) demonstrate the feasibility of using existing CIcomponents (EDO from CUAHSI and CyberCollaboratory from CLEANER) to meet a merged andoverlapping science agenda as demonstrated on the SRB/CB test-bed, and (3) further develop and extendexisting components as well as provide feedback on the design and functionality of CI components to thetechnology partners at SDSC and NCSA.Methodology: To accomplish these objectives an instance of the EDL will be installed at DrexelUniversity. Together with the project partners representing an upstream Hydrologic Observatory regionand a downstream Environmental Observatory region, we will identify and collect as many nutrient dataas is possible and currently available for these regions for inclusion in the EDL. While the population ofthe EDL in the first step will require substantial effort to further develop current CI components(appropriate metadata tags and tools for creating instantiations) we will conduct a data gap analysis in theupstream region for missing or insufficient data. The gap analysis will be carried out using a statisticalmodeling tool (SPARROW), which will yield predictions that can be compared to existing data sets. Thequality or match of these comparisons will be an indicator for the overall quality of the data sets as far astheir temporal and spatial coverage is concerned. This is an important step towards an improvedknowledge on the fluxes, stores, and pathways of water as well as nutrients within the SRB and thereceiving waters of the CB.Intellectual merit: This project would be the first effort to investigate how hydrologists andenvironmental engineers can make use of the suite of technical support applications currently underdevelopment. This is a crucial step in further developing CI for the environmental and hydrologycommunities by providing feedback in a beta-testing mode. In addition, the use of the CyberCollaboratoryprototype will allow the project team to test a collaboratory system while executing a research project aswell as generate valuable information on how well the system can be used for the purpose of supportingobservatory science and design. Both systems are IT cornerstones for a shared CI between and CUAHSIand CLEANER and as such must be evaluated before being released to the communities.Broader impacts: Besides the impact this project will have on the CI development for hydrologic andenvironmental engineering communities in identifying future research needs, it will also address theeducational sector. One of the major goals of both communities is to bring water related data and toolsinto the class room as well to i) better train the future workforce on issues related to water, and ii) toexpose them to aspects of information technology that could place future professionals at the interface ofwater and IT, an educational goal that has been identified by the NSF Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel onCyberinfrastructure as being one of the most pressing educational needs of the future.