Research Opportunities in Environmental Technology Cindy Ekstein cekstein@nsf

1. Research Opportunities in Environmental Technology Cindy Ekstein cekstein@nsf.gov Program Director

2. WATERS Network, an NSF environmental observatory initiative:Transformative facilities for environmental research, education, and outreach* (CLEANER (ENG) + Hydrologic Observatories (GEO) =WATERS Network) *Led on the ENG side by the Environmental Engineering Program in CBET,

3. 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 supportpersonnel, 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

4. 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

5. I I I III 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.

6. WATERS Network cyberinfrastructure Potential Environmental-Hydrological Observatory

7. History of Recent Planning • CLEANER 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, as needed, are developing a • conceptual design that links the science issues with • the facilities needed to achieve the science goals. • Draft report due in spring 2007.

8. 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.

9. 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. 6. National Research Council 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.

10. Recent Progress, cont. 7. EET and HS jointly are funding 11 new “test-bed” projects to gain field experience with EO development and operation (late 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 Observatory 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