Visualising Pathogen & Environmental Risk (ViPER): an innovation platform to bridge science and decision-making in catchment microbial dynamics

在世界各地，微生物水污染的预测对于为决策提供信息以保障人类健康非常重要。然而，模拟微生物污染物，如大肠杆菌（和其他病原体）在不同空间尺度上的命运和转移，对研究和政策界构成了相当大的挑战。在英国，许多研究都集中在试图了解环境系统中病原体的运动和生存，并认为更好地了解这些微生物的行为特征和数据将提高我们建模和预测它们与我们周围世界的相互作用和反应的能力。nerc资助的项目ReMOFIO （NE/J004456/1）提供了一个在英国进行的研究的例子，以提高我们对景观中微生物风险的大小和空间分布的理解。反过来，这一新知识使一个简单的建模框架得以完善，从而能够根据牲畜数量、耕作方式和大肠杆菌在环境条件下（例如降雨和温度波动）的生存模式，改进对农业用地微生物风险的预测。虽然这种模式是有用的，但其目前的形式使更广泛的受众无法获得它，最重要的是，它阻碍了监管界和负责流域管理和环境决策的人更广泛地采用它。实际上，科学界开发的模型很少（如果有的话）从一开始就以这样一种方式设计，以最大限度地吸引不同的最终用户。通常，要想有效地将有时相当复杂的科学“开放”为一种更加用户友好的形式，所需要的是开发一个界面，或“前端”，它促进最终用户的交互，但将基础科学隐藏在视线之外。实现这一点的一个常见方法是图形用户界面（GUI）的设计，它允许没有特定建模技能或建模系统知识的最终用户利用现有的科学和建模能力。GUI本质上提供了一种将科学研究转化为最终用户的实用工具的有效方法。作为回应，该创新项目将促进一系列科学提供者（研究人员）和科学用户（监管机构、流域管理者和农场网络）的参与、审议和联合决策，努力为ReMOFIO模型开发GUI，并探索将该GUI转换为基于应用程序的格式。这是确保NERC资助的模型和数据通过创新地将基础证据基础转换为相关最终用户可广泛访问的格式，从而对现实世界产生影响的关键一步。ViPER（病原体与环境风险可视化）项目的目的是促进利益相关者更广泛地获取和吸收这门NERC科学，以产生影响，并确保以正确的方式和正确的时间将最新的见解和知识传递给正确的人。

Around the world the prediction of microbial water pollution is important for informing policy decisions in order to safeguard human health. However, modelling the fate and transfer of microbial pollutants, such as E. coli (& other pathogens) at different spatial scales poses a considerable challenge to the research and policy community. In the UK much research has focused on trying to understand the movement & survival of pathogens in environmental systems with a view that better knowledge and data on the behavioural characteristics of these micro-organisms will improve our ability to model and predict their interactions with, and responses to, the world around us. The NERC-funded project ReMOFIO (NE/J004456/1) provides an example of research undertaken in the UK to improve our understanding of the magnitude and spatial distribution of microbial risks in the landscape. In turn, this new knowledge has enabled the refinement of a simple modelling framework to allow for improved prediction of microbial risk on agricultural land, based on livestock numbers, farming practices and E. coli survival patterns under environmental conditions (e.g. rainfall and temperature fluctuations). While this model is useful, its current form makes it inaccessible to a wider audience and, most importantly, hinders its wider uptake by the regulatory community and those with a responsibility for catchment management and environmental decision-making. Indeed, models developed by the scientific community are rarely, if ever, designed in such a way to maximise their appeal to different end-users from the outset. Often what is required to effectively 'open-up' the access of sometimes rather complex science into a more user-friendly format is the development of an interface, or 'front-end', that promotes end-user interaction but keeps the underpinning science hidden from view. A common approach to enable this is the design of a Graphic User Interface (GUI) that allows end-users without specific modelling skills or knowledge of a modelling system to take advantage of existing science and modelling capability. A GUI essentially provides an effective means of translating scientific research into a practical tool for end-users.In response, this Innovation Project will promote engagement, deliberation and joint decision-making across a range of science providers (researchers) and science users (regulators, catchment managers and farm networks) in an effort to develop a GUI for the ReMOFIO model, and to explore the translation of this GUI into an App-based format too. This represents a critical step for ensuring that this NERC funded model and data delivers real-world impact through innovative conversion of the underpinning evidence-base into a format that is widely accessible by relevant end-users. The aim of the ViPER (Visualising Pathogen & Environmental Risk) project is to facilitate wider access and uptake of this NERC science, by stakeholders, in order to deliver that impact and to ensure that up-to-date insight and knowledge is transferred to the right people both in the right way and at the right time.