Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure: Computational Modeling and Simulation Center

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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.