Collaborative Research: Frameworks: Building a Collaboration Infrastructure: CyberWater2 -- A Sustainable Data/Model Integration Framework

自然灾害，如飓风造成的沿海和内陆洪水和严重干旱及其相关野火，以前所未有的频率发生，由气候变化引起，包括水文，生物，环境，大气，海洋和其他地球科学。这些灾害不仅对我们的环境造成了深刻的破坏，需要付出巨大的努力才能恢复，而且还使人们付出了生命的代价。为了减轻这些潜在的灾害，现在是解决与之相关的科学问题的关键时刻，这些问题既有根本性的，也有大规模的，它们会影响到我们生活的地球系统的健康、复原力和可持续性。这些问题是复杂和多学科的，来自不同领域的研究人员和从业人员必须共同努力找到解决办法。就其性质而言，地球系统模型由组件模型组成-从陆地表面到河流，沿海地区，海洋，海冰和大气，其中每个组件模型相互耦合。随着科学的进步，组件模型或其子系统可能必须被替换，因为新的理解，或者因为必须探索和测试不同组合的可信度以找到对不同位置的不同条件的最可信的预测。这些任务往往需要大量的努力和时间，并可能成为瓶颈。该项目旨在开发一个新的开源网络基础设施框架Cyberwater 2，其中模型耦合从当前的“代码耦合”方法转移到新的“信息耦合”方法，并且可以在不编写粘合代码的情况下进行配置。这最大限度地减少了访问和修改每个参与模型的原始代码的需要，并消除了跨学科和地理边界的大规模跨机构合作和科学研究的主要障碍。CyberWater 2专为水、气候、沿海、工程等不同的研究社区而设计。通过我们的框架，研究人员可以将他们的协作精力投入到解决问题和探索新的前沿领域，同时使用CyberWater 2有效地实现跨平台的双向开放模型耦合，模型参数校准，数据同化，测试/验证/比较等。该项目的目标是更容易地对复杂问题进行大规模协作并有效解决它们，通过开发网络基础设施CyberWatyer 2，准确和深入地：（1）大大消除了异构计算平台、学科和组织之间双向耦合的“胶水”编码;（2）自动化复杂的模型校准，促进适用于各种模型的数据同化过程;（3）支援以任务为基础的现场混合工作流程，大大提高跨异构平台双向耦合的效率;（4）除独立系统外，为用户提供CyberWater 2服务器和Web服务框架;（5）通过使数据代理自动适应变化（例如，API接口）;以及（6）实现自动化资源规划，并根据需求为高性能计算（HPC）/云访问提供智能站点建议，以最大限度地提高用户的利益。该项目由计算机信息科学工程局高级网络基础设施办公室&&和地球科学局地球科学部支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定基金会的使命是履行其使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评价，被认为值得支持。

Natural hazards, such as coastal and inland flooding caused by Hurricanes and severe drought and its associated wildfire, have been occurring with unprecedented frequency, induced by climate changes that encompass hydrological, biological, environmental, atmospheric, ocean, and other geosciences. Such hazards have caused not only profound damages to our environment and required tremendous efforts to recover, but also cost people's lives. To mitigate these potential disasters, it is a critical time to tackle their associated scientific questions both fundamental and large-scale that impact on the health, resilience, and sustainability of the Earth system we live in. The problems are complex and multidisciplinary, and researchers and practitioners from diverse fields must work together to find solutions. By its nature, Earth system models are comprised of component models – from land surface, to rivers, coastal regions, ocean, sea ice, and atmosphere, where each component model is coupled with one another. As science advances, a component model or its subsystems may have to be replaced because of new understanding, or because different perspectives must be explored and tested for the credence of different combinations to find the most credible predictions for different conditions at different locations. Such tasks often require substantial efforts and time and can become a bottleneck. This project is aimed at developing a new open-source cyberinfrastructure framework, Cyberwater2, in which model coupling is shifted from the current "code-coupling" approach to a new "information coupling" approach, and can be configured without writing glue code. This minimizes the need to access and modify each participating model's original code, and removes a major obstacle for large-scale cross-institutional collaborations and scientific investigations across disciplines and geographic boundaries. CyberWater2 is designed for diverse research communities including water, climate, coastal, engineering, and beyond. With our framework, researchers can devote their collaborative energy on problem solving and exploration of new frontiers, while using CyberWater2 to effectively achieve two-way open model couplings across platforms, model parameter calibration, data assimilation, testing/validations/comparisons, etc.The goal of this project is to make it easier to conduct large scale collaboration on complex problems and solve them efficiently, accurately and in-depth by developing a cyberinfrastructure, CyberWatyer2, that (1) significantly eliminates "glue" coding for two-way couplings across heterogeneous computing platforms, disciplines, and organizations; (2) automates complex model calibration and facilitates data assimilation processes applicable to various models; (3) supports task-based and in-situ hybrid workflow for greatly improved efficiency on two-way coupling across heterogeneous platforms; (4) provides a CyberWater2 server and web service framework for users in addition to the standalone systems; (5) enables sustainable data access from diverse sources by automatically adapting data agents to the changes (e.g., API interfaces) made to external data sources by providers; and (6) enables automated resource planning with intelligent site recommendation for High Performance Computing (HPC)/Cloud access on demand to maximize users' benefits.This project is supported by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure in the Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering and the Division of Earth Sciences in the Directorate of Geosciences.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.