Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure: Computational Modeling and Simulation Center

自然灾害工程研究基础设施(NHERI)将得到国家科学基金会(NSF)的支持，作为一个分布式、多用户的国家设施，将为自然灾害工程界提供访问研究基础设施的途径。NHERI将由网络协调办公室(NCO)、网络基础设施(CI)、计算建模和仿真中心(SimCenter)-该奖项以及地震和风灾工程研究实验设施(包括灾后快速反应研究(RAPID)设施)的单独研究基础设施奖组成。NHERI奖将有助于NSF在国家减少地震灾害计划(NEHRP)和国家减少风暴影响计划中发挥作用。NHERI继续强调NSF对地震工程研究基础设施的重视，这些基础设施以前是由小乔治·E·布朗资助的。地震工程模拟网络是NEHRP的一部分，但现在扩大了这种支持，将风和沿海灾害工程研究基础设施包括在内。NHERI的广泛目标是支持将提高民用基础设施(如建筑物和其他结构、地下结构、堤坝和关键生命线)抵御地震和风暴自然灾害的弹性和可持续性的研究，以将生命损失、破坏和经济损失降至最低。有关NHERI资源的信息可在NHERI CI Web门户(http://www.DesignSafe-ci.org).)上找到该奖项将为NHERI提供SimCenter组件。模拟中心的目标是为自然灾害工程研究和教育界提供下一代计算建模和模拟软件工具、用户支持和教育材料，以提高国家模拟自然灾害对建筑物、生命线和社区的影响的能力，并就潜在缓解战略的需求和有效性做出明智的决定。这些工具将在NHERI CI的DesignSafe-ci.org发现工作区中提供。模拟中心将使用新的开源模拟框架提供计算建模和模拟工具，该框架：(1)解决各种自然灾害，如风暴、风暴潮、海啸和地震；(2)解决涉及自然灾害研究的复杂的科学问题，包括地球科学、岩土和结构工程、建筑学、城市规划、风险管理、社会科学、公共政策和金融；(3)利用机器学习，利用从实验测试、实地调查和以前的模拟获得的数据来促进和改进建模和模拟；(4)量化与模拟结果相关的不确定性；(5)利用DesignSafe-ci.org门户网站提供的高性能并行计算、数据同化和相关能力，轻松地将软件应用程序组合成前所未有的复杂和复杂的工作流程；(6)扩展和改进软件工具，以执行基于性能的工程评估和支持决策，以增强易受多种自然灾害影响的社区的应变能力；以及(7)利用已提供许多所需计算工作流程的现有应用程序。由此产生的基于云的生态系统将允许多学科专家和各种利益相关者就复杂的自然灾害工程问题的解决方案进行协作，无论他们的当地资源和地理位置如何。在开发框架和应用程序的同时，将在一个新的虚拟实践社区内实施面对面和在线教育方案，包括大规模开放的在线课程，该社区将提供一个在线会议场所，以获取和交流社区生成的想法、反馈、建模和模拟的最佳实践、见解和自然灾害工程研究的创新。模拟中心还将提供用户研讨会和研究生研究实习生计划，并将接待两名学生，作为NCO本科生研究体验计划的一部分。

The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) will be supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a distributed, multi-user national facility that will provide the natural hazards engineering community with access to research infrastructure. NHERI will be comprised of separate research infrastructure awards for a Network Coordination Office (NCO), Cyberinfrastructure (CI), Computational Modeling and Simulation Center (SimCenter)-this award, and Experimental Facilities for earthquake and wind hazards engineering research, including a post-disaster, rapid response research (RAPID) facility. NHERI awards will contribute to NSF's role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program. NHERI continues NSF's emphasis on earthquake engineering research infrastructure previously supported under the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation as part of NEHRP, but now broadens that support to include wind and coastal hazards engineering research infrastructure. NHERI has the broad goal of supporting research that will improve the resilience and sustainability of civil infrastructure, such as buildings and other structures, underground structures, levees, and critical lifelines, against the natural hazards of earthquakes and windstorms, in order to minimize loss of life, damage, and economic loss. Information about NHERI resources is available on the NHERI CI web portal (http://www.DesignSafe-ci.org). This award will provide the SimCenter component for NHERI. The goal of the SimCenter is to provide the natural hazards engineering research and education community with access to next generation computational modeling and simulation software tools, user support, and educational materials needed to advance the nation's capability to simulate the impact of natural hazards on structures, lifelines, and communities, and to make informed decisions about the need for and effectiveness of potential mitigation strategies. These tools will be available on the NHERI CI's DesignSafe-ci.org Discovery Workspace. The SimCenter will provide computational modeling and simulation tools using a new open source simulation framework that: (1) addresses various natural hazards, such as windstorms, storm surge, tsunamis, and earthquakes; (2) tackles complex, scientific questions of concern to disciplines involved in natural hazards research, including earth sciences, geotechnical and structural engineering, architecture, urban planning, risk management, social sciences, public policy, and finance; (3) utilizes machine learning to facilitate and improve modeling and simulation using data obtained from experimental tests, field investigations, and previous simulations; (4) quantifies uncertainties associated with the simulation results obtained; (5) utilizes the high-performance parallel computing, data assimilation, and related capabilities provided by the DesignSafe-ci.org web portal to easily combine software applications into workflows of unprecedented sophistication and complexity; (6) extends and refines software tools for carrying out performance-based engineering evaluations and supporting decisions that enhance the resilience of communities susceptible to multiple natural hazards; and (7) utilizes existing applications that already provide many of the pieces of desired computational workflows. The resulting cloud-based ecosystem will allow multidisciplinary specialists and various stakeholders to collaborate on solutions to complex natural hazard engineering problems regardless of their local resources and geographic proximity. In tandem with the framework and applications being developed, in-person and online educational programs, including massive open online courses, will be implemented within a new Virtual Community of Practice that will provide an online meeting place to obtain and exchange community-generated ideas, feedback, best practices for modeling and simulation, insights, and innovations for natural hazards engineering research. The SimCenter will also provide user workshops and a graduate student research traineeship program and will host two students as part of the NCO's Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.