Transcript WATERS Network - CUAHSI-HIS

WATERS Network, an NSF
environmental observatory initiative:
Transformative facilities for environmental
research, education, and outreach
Patrick Brezonik
Program Director, Environmental Engineering
National Science Foundation
WATERS Network Test-Bed/HIS Phase 2 Kick-off Meeting
Austin, Texas
November 15, 2006
WATERS Network is an MREFC (Major Research
Equipment and Facilities Construction) initiative
in two directorates of the National Science Foundation
CLEANER (ENG) + Hydrologic Observatories (GEO)
= WATERS Network)
Why WATERS Network?
Critical importance of water to society
and ecosystems, and increasing demands
for water.
Growing recognition that old-style,
piecemeal, small-scale research efforts
simply are not adequate.
Courtesy of Tom Harmon
Four critical deficiencies in current abilities:
1. Basic data about water-related processes at needed spatial and temporal resolution.
2. The means to integrate data from different media and sources (observations,
experiments, simulations).
3. Sufficiently accurate modeling and decision-support tools to predict underlying
processes and forecast effects of different engineering management strategies.
4. The understanding of fundamental processes needed to transfer knowledge
and predictions across spatial and temporal scales—from the scale of
measurements to the scale of a desired management action.
WATERS Network:
MISSION STATEMENT
Transform our understanding of the Earth’s water and
related biogeochemical cycles across spatial and temporal
scales to enable forecasting of critical water-related processes
that affect and are affected by human activities…
and develop scientific and engineering tools that will
enable more effective management approaches for water
resources in large-scale human-stressed environments.
WATERS Network Grand Challenge
How do we better detect (in near-real time, where appropriate), predict,
and manage the effects of human activities and natural perturbations on
the quantity, distribution and quality of water?
Examples of more specific science questions for
three hydrologic-climatic regions
Coastal
 How spatially/temporally variable are pollutant inputs in coastal watersheds, and how can
public drinking water supplies and fisheries be protected using engineered systems?
 What sampling frequency and spatial extent is required to obtain accurate assessments of
pollutant quantities in coastal watersheds susceptible to large variations in water flows due
to large storms events, particularly hurricanes?
Humid-Continental
 What environmental conditions, variables and disturbances lead to elevated pathogen levels
or unacceptable taste/odor problems, and how should drinking water treatment plants respond?
 What rate of mercury emissions and landscape characteristics will maintain human and
wildlife exposure to methylmercury in safe bounds?
Arid-Continental
 How can issues of water conservation and reclamation be effectively managed in the arid west?
 Can sustainable communities be developed, minimizing impacts to undeveloped landscape
and controlling pollution and runoff problems for downstream communities?
WATERS Network
DRAFT SCIENCE QUESTIONS
• How are the fate and transport of water, sediments, and
contaminants affected by spatial and temporal variability?
• How do we scale our knowledge of processes from point to
management levels?
• How can sensing systems improve identification of the spatial and
temporal sources of water contaminants, their pathways through the
environment, and their reaction rates?
• What treatment/management practices have the greatest benefits for
reducing large-scale contaminant and sediment transport and
improving human and ecological health?
• How can human uses of water be made sustainable in light of longterm environmental and demographic changes?
The Idea:
The WATERS Network will:
1. Consist of:
(a) a national network of interacting field sites; across a range of
spatial scales, climate and land-use/cover conditions
(b) teams of investigators studying human-stressed
landscapes, with an emphasis on water problems;
(c) specialized support personnel, facilities, and technology; and
(d) integrative cyberinfrastructure to provide a shared-use network
as the framework for collaborative analysis
2. Transform environmental engineering and hydrologic science research
and education
3. Enable more effective management of water resources in human-dominated
environments based on observation, experimentation, modeling,
engineering analysis, and design
Network Design Principles:
Enable multi-scale, dynamic predictive modeling for water, sediment,
and water quality (flux, flow paths, rates), including:
Near-real-time assimilation of data
Feedback for observatory design
Point- to national-scale prediction
Network provides data sets and framework to test:
Sufficiency of the data
Alternative model conceptualizations
Master Design Variables:
Scale
Climate (arid vs humid)
Coastal vs inland
Land use, land cover, population
density
Energy and materials/industry
Land form and geology
Nested Observatories
over Range of Scales:
Point (individual sensor sites)
Plot (100 m2)
Sub-catchment (2 km2)
Catchment (10 km2) – single land use
Watershed (100–10,000 km2) – mixed use
Basin (10,000–100,000 km2)
Continental
I
I
III
I
II
I
Simplified schema of a potential national WATERS Network based on three
hydrologic regions: (I) coastal, (II) humid-continental, and (III) arid-continental;
large blue circles: regional, watershed-based observatories; smaller circles:
nested watershed and intensively instrumented field sites. NOTE: All locations
shown are hypothetical examples.
WATERS Network will employ a variety of technologically advanced methods,
many gathering data in real-time, to measure water-related environmental
processes in natural and human-dominated systems.
WATERS Network observatories in the humid-continental portion of the U.S.
likely will be based on the concept of nested watersheds and will include field
sites to measure water-related processes in pristine, managed (agricultural),
and urban areas.
In addition to a physical architecture based on climate and land-use
patterns, WATERS Network will have “meta-units” or “problemsheds”
to focus on specific water issues.
The Urban Water Cycle
Interbasin
Transfers of
Water &
Wastewater
P
Impervious
Surfaces
Stormdrains
RO
ET
Riparian &
Upland
Forest Patches
E
RO
RO
I
Wells
Water
Table
Septic
Systems
Water
Supply
Pipes
Wastewater
Conduits
Artificial
Channels
Local GW
Regional GW
Courtesy of Ken Belt, USFS
Rooting
Zone
Hyporheic &
Parafluvial Zones
ADVANCES IN SENSORS
ARE OCCURRING AT
BREATH-TAKING RATES
Microcytometry
using FlowCam
Microbial
Genosensor
(D. Fries, USF)
FlowCAM Images of
Zebra mussel veligers Nierzwicki-Bauer, RPI
Depth profiler using computercontrolled, programmable winch
sonde package includes
Conductivity
Temperature
Turbidity
DO
pH/ORP
Chlorophyll-a
Internal battery
Data transmitted via
Sontek-YSI
cellular modem
Solar AUV (SAUV II)
Autonomous Undersea Systems Institute (AUSI)
Falmouth Scientific Inc.
Art Sanderson, RPI
WATERS Network cyberinfrastructure
Development of WATERS Network CI is based on the
concept of providing supporting technology for all the
steps in the basic research process
Integrated CI ECID Project Focus: Cyberenvironments
Knowledge
Services
Data
Services
Workflows
& Model
Services
Supporting Technology
MetaWorkflows
Collaboration
Services
Digital
Library
HIS Project Focus
Create
Hypothesis
Obtain
Data
Analyze
Data &/or
Assimilate
into
Model(s)
Link &/or
Run
Analyses
&/or
Model(s)
Discuss
Results
Publish
Research
Process
Data Sources
NASA
STORET
Extract
Ameriflux
NCDC
Unidata
NWIS
NCAR
Transform
CUAHSI Web Services
Excel
Visual Basic
C/C++
ArcGIS
Load
Matlab
Applications
http://www.cuahsi.org/his/
Fortran
Access
Java
Some operational services
Meta-Workflow Using CyberIntegrator:
• Observatory efforts will involve:
– Studying complex systems that require coupling analyses or
models of different system components
– Real-time, automated updating of analyses and modeling that
require diverse tools
• CyberIntegrator is a prototype technology to support
modeling and analysis of complex systems
• Some key features of CyberIntegrator:
● Integration of heterogeneous tools: GeoLearn, D2K, Kepler/Ptolemy,
Excel, Im2Learn, ArcGIS, D2KWS
● Provenance information gathering: records user’s activities, from
data to models to visualization to publication to provide easily
reproducible history and make recommendations of next steps to
users
● Reduce manual labor in linking models and analysis tools, visualize
results and update in real time
Models for the processes
Rainfall
(database)
RR
(Sobek-Rainfall
-Runoff)
River
(InfoWorks RS)
Sewer
(Mouse)
Data exchange
3 Rainfall.GetValues
Rainfall
(database)
4
RR
(Sobek-Rainfall
-Runoff)
2 RR.GetValues
1 Trigger.GetValues
5
8
7 RR.GetValues
River
(InfoWorks-RS)
call
9
Sewer
(Mouse)
6 Sewer.GetValues
data
History of Recent Planning
1. CLEANER (WATERS Network) Project Office established in
August 2005.
Six committees have prepared draft reports on:
Science challenges and issues Cyberinfrastructure needs
Sensors and sensor networks Organization (consortium possibilities)
Role of social sciences in EOs Educational plans
See http://cleaner.ncsa.uiuc.edu
2. Interdisciplinary group of engineers and scientists, with
with additional advisors, are developing a conceptual
design via a set of science and technical requirements that
links the science issues with the facilities needed to achieve
the science goals. Draft report due in spring 2007.
Recent Progress, cont.
3. NSF (and others) are funding numerous projects related to
sensor network development.
4. Tangible progress is being made on the development of
cyberinfrastructure needs for WATERS Network:
● Cyberinfrastructure Committee is creating a CI program plan
● Three new CEO:P projects focus on cyberinfrastructure for water research.
● Two major projects are creating CI prototypes for WATERS:
● CUAHSI’s Hydrologic Information System (David Maidment, PI) now has
capabilities to extract and merge water data from various databases.
● NCSA’s Environmental CI Demonstration project (ECID) (Barbara Minsker
and Jim Meyer, Co-PIs) is developing a prototype “cyberintegrator” to
provide a meta-work-flow system to streamline analysis of data from diverse
sources and link various models and analysis tools.
Recent Progress, cont.
5. Workshop on modeling needs (Tucson, May 2006) for NSF’s
environmental observatories enhanced collaboration among the
initiatives, stimulated communication among modelers across fields, and
produced useful contacts with other federal agencies. This also led to the
formation of a Project Office Modeling Committee, which will produce a
report for WATERS Network in January 2007.
6. The National Research Council’s Water Science
and Technology Board issued a report “CLEANER
and NSF’s Environmental Observatories” supporting
the concept of WATERS Network, and providing
advice on science questions and implementation
issues (May 2006). Negotiations for a full-scale
committee study are underway.
Recent Progress, cont.
7. EET and HS jointly are funding 11 new “test-bed” projects to gain field
experience with EO development and operation (FY 2006/early FY 2007).
Observatory Design in the Mountain West: Scaling Measurements and Modeling in the
San Joaquin Valley and Sierra Nevada
A Synthesis of Community Data and Modeling for Advancing River Basin Science: the
Evolving Susquehanna River Basin Experiment
Design and Demonstration of a Distributed Sensor Array for Predicting Water Flow and
Nitrate Flux in the Santa Fe Basin
Wireless Technologies and Embedded Networked Sensing: Application to Integrated
Urban Water Quality Management
Clear Creek Environmental Hydrologic Observatory: from Vision toward Reality
An Environmental Information System for Hypoxia in Corpus Christi Bay:
A WATERS Network Test-bed
Linking Time and Space of Snowpack Runoff: Crown of the Continent Hydrologic Observator
FerryMon, Unattended Water Quality Monitoring Utilizing Advanced Environmental Sensing
Demonstration and Development of a Test-Bed Digital Observatory for the Susquehanna
River Basin and Chesapeake Bay
Tools for Environmental Observatory Design and Implementation: Sensor Networks,
Dynamic Bayesian Nutrient Flux Modeling, and Cyberinfrastructure Advancement
Quantifying Urban Groundwater in Environmental Field Observatories: a Missing Link in
Understanding How the Built Environment Affects the Hydrologic Cycle
The Need…and Why Now?
Nothing is more fundamental to life than water. Not only is water
a basic need, but adequate safe water underpins the nation’s
health, economy, security, and ecology.
NRC (2004) Confronting the nation’s water problems: the role of research.
● Water use globally will triple in the next two decades, leading to increases in erosion,
pollution, dewatering, and salinization.
● Major U.S. aquifers (e.g., the Ogallala) are being mined and the resource consumed.
● Only ~55% of the nation’s river and stream miles and acres of lakes and estuaries
fully meet their intended uses; ~45% are polluted, mostly from diffuse-source runoff.
● From 1990 through 1997, floods caused more than $34 billion in damages in the U.S.
● Of 45,000 U.S. wells tested for pesticides, 5,500 had harmful levels of at least one.
● Fish consumption advisories are common in 30 states because of elevated mercury levels.
FY 2008 Administration R&D Budget Priorities: U.S. and global supplies of fresh water
continue to be critical to human health and economic prosperity. Agencies are developing a
coordinated, multi-year plan to improve understanding of the processes that control water
availability and quality, and collect the data needed to ensure an adequate water supply for
the future. Agencies should participate in this plan and its implementation.