EarthCube Building Block: GeoDataspace: Simplifying Data Management for Geoscience Models

这种共享的一大障碍是必须花费大量的时间和精力来创建、交流、接收和解释数据、模型和相关知识的规范。在计算地球科学中，这种无法快速方便地共享的问题尤其严重，因为科学家要花费大量时间管理与模型相关的许多输入和输出文件。在开发、测试、验证和比较模型（特别是耦合模型）时，此类数据元素的数量及其管理相关的复杂性很快就会超出人类的记忆容量。不幸的结果是，研究人员经常缩小模型分析的范围，损害研究质量，或者在受限制的团队中进行分析。这个试点项目将展示一种在科学界克服这一挑战的机制。GeoDataspace试点项目将开发一种新的以数据为中心的方法来描述计算地球科学的模型和相关数据资源。这种新方法既简化了模型的使用，又增强了模型、数据和计算的可共享性、可重用性和可再现性。计算地球科学家广泛寻求的特性。具体来说，该项目将开发用于定义、共享和访问地理单位的方法，地理单位是定义运行计算模型所需的整个文件集合的描述性元数据集合，包括关于模型运行的详细信息。在文件、处理和操作脚本、清单、电子表格或一次性数据库的情况下，封装可能包括元素位置和每个元素的规范的简化。GeoDataspace团队包括(a)芝加哥大学网络基础设施、数据管理系统和SaaS方面的专家；(b)在固体地球、气候、水文和空间科学四个领域经验丰富和领先的地球科学家，以及模型耦合框架方面的领先专家和地球科学家。该团队共同确定了一个横切数据管理障碍，必须以领域独立的方式加以解决，以便将能力扩展到更广泛的地球科学家群体。所有参与的地球科学家都是我们所代表的五个建模社区的发起者、领导者、工作组主席和/或代表，包括地球动力学计算基础设施（CIG）、社区地球系统模型（CESM）、水文科学促进大学联盟（CUAHSI）和美国宇航局的社区协调建模中心（CCMC），最后是地球系统桥（ESB），一个投资于开发模型耦合框架的社区。总的来说，直接或间接参与GeoDataspace的地球科学家即使没有数千人，也有数百人。

A big obstacle to such sharing is the inordinate amount of time and effort that must be spent in creating, communicating, receiving, and interpreting specifications of data, models, and associated knowledge. This inability to quickly and conveniently share is particularly a problem in computational geoscience, wherein scientists spend significant portions of their time managing the many input and output files that are typically associated with a model. When developing, testing, validating, and comparing models, particularly coupled models, the number of such data elements and the complexity associated with their management soon outgrows human memory capacity. The unfortunate consequence is that researchers often narrow the scope of a model analysis, compromise research quality, or conduct analysis within restricted teams. This pilot project will demonstrate a mechanism to overcome this challenge in the scientific community.The GeoDataspace pilot will develop a new data-centric approach to describing models and associated data resources for computational geoscience. This new approach will both simplify model use and enhance the shareability, reusability, and reproducibility of models, data, and computations?properties widely sought by computational geoscientists. Specifically, the project will develop methods for defining, sharing, and accessing geounits, collections of descriptive metadata that define a m the entire collection of files needed to run a computational model, including details about the model run. In the case of files, processing and manipulation scripts, manifests, spreadsheets, or one-off databases, the encapsulation may consist simplify of the elements location and specification of each element. The GeoDataspace team includes (a) experts in cyberinfrastructure, data management systems, and SaaS at UChicago; (b) experienced and leading geoscientists in four domains of solid earth, climate, hydrology, and space science, and a leading expert, as well as, geoscientist on model coupling frameworks. Together the team has identified a cross-cutting data management barrier that must be critically addressed in a domain-independent manner so as to extend capabilities to a broader set of geoscientists.All participating geoscientists are initiators, leaders, working-group chairs, and/or representatives of the five modeling communities we represent, including Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG), Community Earth System Models (CESM), Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrological Science, Inc. (CUAHSI), and Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) at NASA, and finally Earth Systems Bridge (ESB), a community invested in developing model coupling frameworks. In total, the number of geoscientists either directly or indirectly involved in GeoDataspace is in the hundreds, if not thousands.