Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure: Cyberinfrastructure (DesignSafe) 2020-2025

自然灾害工程研究基础设施(NHERI)由国家科学基金会(NSF)支持，作为一个分布式、多用户的国家设施，向自然灾害工程研究社区提供访问研究基础设施的机会，这些基础设施包括地震和风力工程实验设施、网络基础设施(CI)、计算建模和模拟工具、高性能计算资源和研究数据，以及教育和社区推广活动。NHERI最初由NSF 14-605和NSF 15-598资助，自2015年以来一直通过网络协调办公室、CI、计算建模和仿真中心(SimCenter)和实验设施(包括灾后快速反应研究设施)的单独但协调的五年研究基础设施奖运行。该奖项将NHERI的CI部分从2020年10月1日续订至2025年9月30日。通过这一奖项，得克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校及其合作伙伴(加尔文学院、佛罗里达理工学院、加州大学洛杉矶分校、加州大学圣地亚哥分校、圣母大学圣母大学、华盛顿大学和威廉·马什·赖斯大学)将继续维护、运营和增强NHERI CI设计安全门户网站(https://www.DesignSafe-ci.org)，)，该门户网站提供数据、工具和计算资源，使研究能够减轻自然灾害(如地震、风暴、海啸和风暴潮)对国家民用基础设施和社区的影响。在DesignSafe中，实验、模拟、社会科学和灾后侦察数据将在Data Depot数据库中进行整理、发布和公开，而数据分析、计算建模和模拟工具将在Workspace中提供。侦察门户网站将为数据产品和从美国和国外的自然灾害事件中吸取的经验教训提供一个信息交换中心。将通过学习中心提供在线和面对面培训，使下一代研究人员能够使用DesignSafe提供的高级功能。一年一度的DesignSafe CI Institute将使研究生和博士后研究人员能够与项目工作人员密切合作，实施他们的工作流程。DesignSafe功能组合将使新的研究发现能够帮助保护人类生命，减少损害，并将自然灾害事件中的经济损失降至最低。这一奖项将有助于NSF在国家减少地震灾害计划(NEHRP)和国家减少风灾影响计划(NWIRP)中发挥的作用。NERI科学计划(https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-4s85-mc54)，)中概述的自然灾害工程领域的重大研究挑战需要访问大数据、基于云的计算和模拟工具以及高性能计算资源，而DesignSafe将提供提供这些能力的资源。应对这些挑战并转变自然灾害工程研究的关键是通过访问所需的数据、工具和资源来转变研究工作流程。DesignSafe将提供基本的构建块，用户可以结合这些构建块来生成变革性的工作流程，并将在人工智能和机器学习等前景广阔的领域提供增强的能力。这些增强的功能包括：(1)具有与版本控制、度量、搜索、结构化数据和工具启动相关的新功能的数据仓库；(2)具有支持地理空间数据集分析的新功能的侦察门户；以及(3)具有新功能的工作空间，包括人工智能和机器学习工具、SimCenter工具和Jupyter功能，以支持不同计算环境中的工作流程。DesignSafe提供的能力还将为增强自然灾害工程研究社区的计算技能和开发一支基于网络的工作队伍提供基础。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a distributed, multi-user national facility to provide the natural hazards engineering research community with access to research infrastructure that includes earthquake and wind engineering experimental facilities, cyberinfrastructure (CI), computational modeling and simulation tools, high performance computing resources, and research data, as well as education and community outreach activities. Originally funded under NSF 14-605 and NSF 15-598, NHERI has operated since 2015 through separate, but coordinated, five-year research infrastructure awards for a Network Coordination Office, CI, Computational Modeling and Simulation Center (SimCenter), and Experimental Facilities, including a post-disaster, rapid response research facility. This award will renew the CI component of NHERI from October 1, 2020, to September 30, 2025. Through this award, the University of Texas at Austin and its partners (Calvin College; Florida Institute of Technology; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, San Diego; University of Notre Dame; University of Washington; and William Marsh Rice University) will continue to maintain, operate, and enhance the NHERI CI DesignSafe web portal (https://www.DesignSafe-ci.org), a CI that provides data, tools, and computational resources to enable research to mitigate the impact of natural hazards, such as earthquakes, windstorms, tsunamis, and storm surge, on the nation’s civil infrastructure and communities. In DesignSafe, experimental, simulation, social sciences, and post-disaster reconnaissance data will be curated, published, and made publicly available in the Data Depot data repository, while tools for data analysis and computational modeling and simulation will be provided in the Workspace. The Reconnaissance Portal will provide a clearinghouse for data products and lessons learned from natural hazard events in the United States and abroad. Online and in-person training will be delivered through the Learning Center to enable the next generation of researchers to use the advanced capabilities provided by DesignSafe. The annual DesignSafe CI Institute will enable graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to work closely with project staff to implement their workflows. The portfolio of DesignSafe capabilities will enable new research discoveries that can help protect human life, reduce damage, and minimize economic losses during natural hazard events. This award will contribute to NSF's role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP). The grand research challenges in natural hazards engineering, as outlined in the NHERI Science Plan (https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-4s85-mc54), require access to big data, cloud-based computational and simulation tools, and high performance computing resources, and DesignSafe will provide the resources to deliver these capabilities. The key to addressing these challenges and transforming research in natural hazards engineering is transforming research workflows through access to the required data, tools, and resources. DesignSafe will provide the foundational building blocks that users can combine to generate transformative workflows, and will deliver enhanced capabilities in promising areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. These enhanced capabilities include: (1) the Data Depot with new features related to versioning, metrics, search, structured data, and tool launching; (2) the Reconnaissance Portal with new features to support analysis of geospatial datasets; and (3) the Workspace with new features, including artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, SimCenter tools, and Jupyter capabilities, to support workflows within different computing environments. The capabilities available at DesignSafe will also provide the foundation for enhancing the computational skills of the research community in natural hazards engineering and to develop a cyber-enabled workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.