SI2-S2I2 Conceptualization: Geospatial Software Institute

在全球范围内，诸如应急管理、人口增长和快速城市化等变化和问题正在造成科学和社会挑战，这些挑战既具有局部性，又跨越时空相互依存。收集和用于学术、政府和工业目的的与位置相关的数据（即地理空间数据）迫切需要创新的地理空间软件，以便将这些数据转化为有价值的见解和重要的科学知识。农业、生态学、应急管理、环境工程与科学、水文学、地理与空间科学、地球科学、国家安全、公共卫生和社会科学等领域都需要地理空间数据和软件来取得重要进展。该项目旨在将地理空间软件研究所（GSI）概念化为软件基础设施的长期卓越中心，该中心将汇集使用先进地理空间分析软件进行研究的不同研究团体。该项目将为地理空间软件研究所制定战略计划，即通过动员相关社区和利益相关者制定研究所的愿景和路线图。该项目的中心目标是了解如何构建和实施GSI作为先进地理空间软件基础设施的长期卓越中心，可以汇集和服务于先进和多样化的地理空间软件和科学研究和教育社区。该项目将汇集不同学术、政府和工业机构以及国际合作伙伴的观点。以便更好地理解GSI的需求，识别潜在的软件贡献者，然后为GSI制定任务、愿景和计划。另外还将产生一份社区报告，该报告将评估关键的科学和工程需求以及高性能地理空间软件的有前途的解决方案。最后，这个项目将对国家战略计算计划（NSCI）的战略目标做出有益的贡献。该项目将开展一系列活动，包括三个讲习班以及一些参与和外联活动。这些活动将包括对科学驱动因素和用户需求的初步深入调查，该调查将在项目的第一个月内完成，目标是确定社区需求和要求的初步清单。这项调查将有助于三个讲习班的重点；项目团队将使用调查的结果来制定每个研讨会的重点、议程和期望的结果。这些资料也将用于宣传讲习班和征求参加申请。该项目将接触到代表性不足的群体，通过利用国家超级计算应用中心（NCSA）和国家社会环境综合中心（SESYNC）的现有活动，针对少数族裔机构（例如圣路易斯的哈里斯-斯托州立学院）和社区（例如社会科学），参与国家博物馆项目，并与专业组织(例如，IEEE TCPP和UCGIS知识体系委员会)来理解教育和劳动力发展的需求，以及开发有效的机制来利用这些组织，以确保与课程和教育材料相关的项目的发现和建议被广泛传播到社区。最后，该项目与国家战略计算计划（NSCI）的战略目标非常一致，将有助于提高建模、仿真和数据分析技术之间的一致性，增加持久的国家高性能计算生态系统的容量和能力，并促进美国政府、行业和学术合作的发展。该奖项由先进网络基础设施办公室和社会经济科学部支持，反映了国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Throughout the globe, changes and concerns such as emergency management, population growth, and rapid urbanization are creating scientific and societal challenges that are both localized and interdependent across space and time. Data related to location (i.e. geospatial data) collected and used for academic, governmental, and industrial purposes urgently needs innovative geospatial software to allow such data to be transformed into valuable insights and significant scientific knowledge. Fields such as agriculture, ecology, emergency management, environmental engineering and sciences, hydrology, geography and spatial sciences, geosciences, national security, public health, and social sciences all require geospatial data and software to make important advances. This project seeks to conceptualize a Geospatial Software Institute (GSI) as a long-term hub of excellence in software infrastructure that will bring together the diverse research communities that use advanced geospatial analysis software to do their research. This project will develop a strategic plan for such a Geospatial Software Institute, that is, develop the vision and roadmap of the Institute by mobilizing the relevant communities and stakeholders. The central goal of this project is to understand how to structure and implement a GSI as a long-term hub of excellence in advanced geospatial software infrastructure, that can bring together and serve the advanced and diverse geospatial software and science research and education communities. The project will bring together the perspectives of diverse academic, governmental, and industrial institutions as well as international partners.to better understand the requirements for a GSI, identify potential software contributors, and then develop the mission, vision and plan for the GSI. A community report will additionally be produced, that will assess critical science and engineering needs as well as promising solutions for high-performance geospatial software. Finally, this project will make useful contributions to the strategic objectives of the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI). The project will conduct a number of activities, consisting of three workshops as well as a number of engagement and outreach activities. These activities will consist of an initial, in depth survey of science drivers and user needs to be completed within the first month of the project, with the goal of identifying a preliminary list of community needs and requirements. This survey will help focus the three workshops; the project team will use the results of the survey to develop the key foci, agenda, and desired outcomes of each workshop. This information will also be used to advertise the workshops and solicit applications for participation. The project will reach out to underrepresented groups, target a small set of minority institutions (e.g. Harris-Stowe State College in St. Louis) and communities (e.g. social sciences) by leveraging existing activities by at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), engage national museum programs, and collaborate with professional organizations (e.g., IEEE TCPP and UCGIS Body of Knowledge Committee) to understand the needs of education and workforce development, as well as develop effective mechanisms for leveraging these organizations to ensure that the findings and recommendations of the project related to curriculum and education materials are disseminated to broad communities. Finally, this project is well-aligned with the strategic objectives of the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) and will contribute to increasing coherence between technology for modeling and simulation and data analytics, increasing the capacity and capability of an enduring national HPC ecosystem, and to to developing U.S. government, industry, and academic collaborations. This award, supported by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure and the Division of Social and Economic Sciences, 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.