Collaborative Research: ABI Innovation: RUI: From Data to Knowledge in Grand Challenge Environmental Science Research: The VISualization of Terrestrial-Aquatic Systems (VISTAS)

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The Evergreen State College and Oregon State University (OSU) are awarded grants to collaborate on the VISTAS project to develop visual analytics software that will enable scientists to better understand and communicate about large and complex environmental problems spanning spatial and temporal scales. The research will help scientists understand relationships among ecological processes at the same and different scales, develop new testable hypotheses, and explain research results. The project has three objectives: 1) Conduct Ecology Informatics research to enable the required visual analytics and implement a proof of concept software tool: VISualization of Terrestrial-Aquatic Systems (VISTAS).2) Co-develop VISTAS with environmental scientists who will use VISTAS in studies spanning spatial and temporal scales. 3) Apply social science methods to study the co-development and usability of VISTAS and its visual analytics. The project leaders will also convene a six-member panel, The Northwest Computer Science Consortium to Enhance the Study of Climate Change, which will advise VISTAS scientists and developers, and enlist the CS research community in R&D applicable to environmental science. The VISTAS project will broadly impact environmental science research with a long term vision to improve evidence-based practice of natural resource management with visual analytics. The project will assure dissemination, technology transfer, and sustainability of research results and tool development and will specifically include: 1) Technology transfer of results beyond normal dissemination channels (scholarly publication and presentation), i.e., communication of results to natural resource managers and policy makers, producers of scientific software, information managers serving scientists, and computer scientists (thus encouraging basic research in areas that would benefit scientific software development and lead to new technology useful in science and beyond). 2) Presentation of scientists' use of VISTAS to natural resource managers and policy makers, and to professional master's students. 3) Involving undergraduate and graduate students in research, and enhancing environmental science and computer science education at our institutions with materials from this work. 4) Continuation of past successful dissemination of interdisciplinary educational materials and integration of visualizations from this work into an existing program for middle school girls. Because methods to transcend time and spatial scales are not well understood, this project will determine if visualizing natural phenomena in new ways helps scientists develop intuition and hypotheses at multiple spatial scales -- formulating new insights about ecosystem services, and patterns and processes, in complex environmental systems. As important visualizations also help scientists communicate insights to non scientists. Additional information about the project is available on the web: http://blogs.evergreen.edu/vistas