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GEOINFORMATICS: A DEFINING OPPORTUNITY FOR EARTH SCIENCE RESEARCH The future research direction and opportunities in earth sciences will be significantly affected both by the availability and utilization of Information Technology. Researchers in earth sciences are deeply involved in discovering the relationships between the observed geologic record and the complex processes that have shaped them, and recognize the uniqueness of the geologic evolution of the Earth within the solar system. The earth has a complex record of the dynamic interaction of plates, earth materials and life that provide clues to the physical and chemical evolution of continents, oceans and the atmosphere. The rock record which preserves nearly 4.5 billion years of history has been meticulously gathered through observations over the centuries, and highlight the scientific problems associated with studies of biodiversity and climate change, planetary processes, and the 4-D architecture and evolution of continents. As the complexities of these processes are only recently being recognized through the application of new technologies, it is evident that an enormous gain in understanding can be realized only if multidisciplinary data are evaluated numerically, and integrated geospatially through the utilization of Information Technology. The Need for an Earth Science Data System Ever-growing understanding and acceptance that the Earth
functions as a complex system composed of myriad interrelated mechanisms
have made Earth scientists realize that existing information systems and
techniques used are inadequate. Currently, the uncoordinated distribution
of available data sets, a lack of documentation about them, and the lack
of easy-to-use access tools and computer codes are major obstacles for
scientists and educators alike. These obstacles have hindered scientists
and educators in the access and full use of available data and
information, and hence have limited scientific productivity and the
quality of education. Recent technological advances, however, provide
practical means to overcome such problems. Advances in computer design,
software, disk storage systems as well as the growth of the World Wide Web
(WWW) now permit for the first time the management of Gbytes to terabytes
of data for distribution to scientists, educators, students, and the
general public. Earth Science is a discipline that is strongly data driven, and large data sets are often developed by researchers and government agencies. The complexity of the fundamental scientific questions being addressed require integrative and innovative approaches employing these data sets if we are to find solutions. Although a number of databases exist, the ultimate goal of the Earth Science community is to create a fully integrated data system populated with high quality, freely available data, as well as, a robust set of software to analyze and interpret the data. This system would feature rich and comprehensive databases and convenient access. These capabilities are needed to attack a variety of basic and applied Earth Science problems The development of the capability to construct, organize, and verify an Earth Science data system is a natural, and indeed essential step for the Earth Sciences to move forward so that we can understand the Earth as a system, as well as meet societal needs. Most Earth Science problems are inherently 4-D (x, y, z, t) in nature involving the subsurface and variation with time. Thus, their solution requires data analysis that is far more complex than provided by traditional Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The extent, complexity, and sometimes primitive form of existing data sets and data bases, as well as the need for the optimization of the collection of new data, dictate that only a large, cooperative, well -coordinated, and sustained effort will allow the community to attain its scientific goals. With a strong emphasis on ease of access and use, the resulting data system would be a very powerful scientific tool to reveal new relationships in space and time, and would be an important resource for students, teachers, the public at large, governmental agencies and industry Fundamental new discoveries will require the availability of databases that encompass a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Because of the need to integrate heterogeneous data sets and tools to analyze them, the Geoinformatics program provides the focus for community participation in a national experiment to enhance and retain the pre-eminent role in the world for the United States in Earth Sciences research. It will also be the catalyst for the creation of a global database (e.g. Digital Earth). The Interim Steering Committee(ISC) (see Appendix A for list of members) has identified both the procedural details for community participation, as well as recommended the most exciting research frontiers for the near future that require construction and utilization of databases. However, the most important Earth Science problems to be attacked using this data system and software are probably not yet known because the creative energies of people getting together to explore relationships among the data and test ideas will lead to unanticipated insights. The TWO recommendations are described separately, and the benefits to the entire Earth Sciences community are presented in the summary section. Creation of a National Consortium of Academic Institutions Although it has never been tried before, the power of having all information and knowledge along with access, modeling, and visualization tools at the finger tips of a user has great potential in advancing science, accelerating the discovery process, and enhancing the quality of Earth Science education and being a valuable tool for earth science industries involved in resource discovery or protection. One of our goals is to bring this power to all scientists and interested parties by forming a center consisting of a number of working groups and nodes that develop and maintain elements of the data system. Broad input and participation from the Earth Science community would be sought, and the ultimate goal would be to form a consortium modeled after IRIS and UNAVCO. The membership would consist of all interested academic organizations in the U. S. and could easily exceed several hundred eventually. Each member institution would appoint a representative to the governing body that would in turn populate a series of committees to address key issue such as standards, data management, software arrangements, publication strategies, personnel, and system architecture. Only a small staff need be hired initially. Initial Organization Structure The ISC recommends the establishment of a consortium of
academic institutions through Frontiers of Earth Science Research and
Geoinformatics Two centuries of observational and analytical data are available to construct databases. As it is unlikely that all the data can be verified and digitally cataloged, the ISC recommends the creation of databases utilizing a progressive growth model based on near term research needs. A representation of our vision that provides for full community participation identifies data sources and expert working groups responsible for formulating quality control methods, as well as creating attributes for all disciplinary data is shown above and described in the following sections. The structure of the database will be constructed by experts in Earth Sciences that have significant expertise in both GIS and database management techniques. Additional help will be requested as needed from the computer science community.
A. Expert working groups: Represent expertise in research
categories as defined by the programs within the EAR of the National
Science Foundation (see Appendix A for current working group).
Responsibilities of the expert working group include B. Data sources: C. Creating the database and information system: Competitive proposals funded by NSF will provide the initial stages for construction of databases. The ISC recommends the need to fund multiple requests in as many disciplines as possible to create the nascent interdisciplinary database. As oversight and management of the growing database is required, the ISC recommends a progressive growth model, whereby the senior principal investigator will be responsible for nodal data management till a more centralized clearinghouse is established. The individual PI will then turn data over to the clearinghouse facility for permanent storage and distribution to the entire community. Well crafted initial projects are critical to the success of the data system and ultimately to the formation of the consortium. A fundamental objective of the initiative must be the implementation of a small but highly visible change within the community by adding a geospatial component to the geologic culture. This initiative must be perceived as a significant contribution to the community at large. If the proposed data and information system is not regarded as an exciting and useful tool, members of the community will not expend the resources (monetary and time) required to access and ultimately contribute to the data system. The initiative requires several exciting, well integrated, and easily accessible examples of data system construction to establish the SOME SUGGESTED
SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SEISMIC WAVE PROPOGATION: CRUSTAL THICKNESS: Pn GPS VECTOR DATABASE GROUNDWATER CHEMISTRY DATA MANAGEMENT AND SUPPORT: PROGRESSIVE GROWTH MODEL Infrastructure as an indispensable community utility. To achieve this goal, the initial projects must address fundamental earth processes and make possible significant contributions to scientific understanding. It is not necessary to collect new data for this to be successful; rather the emphasis should be on mining existing data resources for the development and integration of data sets in a spatially and temporally referenced framework. In development of initial projects, this initiative must be sensitive to existing data infrastructure (IRIS, UNAVCO, NASA, USGS, and NOAA/NGDC) and the anticipated needs of EarthScope. D. Available and needed Toolbox of software: The
various expert working groups will be responsible for identifying all
available software (academic and commercial) for data reduction,
manipulation and modeling. The expert working groups will also be
responsible for recommending the development of new software to enhance
the utilization of the databases. E. Dynamic models: The creation of numerical models with graphic and visualization capabilities will be significant for the growth of the Geoinformatics program. The ISC recognizes the increased opportunities for fundamental breakthroughs in EAR research if the right software is available to integrate multidisciplinary data. F. Linkages to available databases: Many federal and state agencies, as well as academic institutions and industry have either national and regional or thematic databases. Fusion of these databases with those created through the Geoinformatics program will require development of new software, new protocols as well as interagency agreements. Coordination with the educational project, Digital Libraries for Earth System Education (DLESE) will strengthen both programs. Summary and Long Term Vision Our approach is central to the vitality and longevity of
the data system. Simplicity and flexibility is crucial in developing a
system that can respond to changing technologies and user needs. At the
early stages of development, regional data system nodes will be crucial to
gathering and maintaining regional contributions, and as an interface with
the local community. The evolving data system would require the
establishment of an interim facility where fundamental data sets are
housed (e.g. available tools and programs), and linked via broad bandwidth
Internet connections needed to handle data access and transfer. The data
system must be flexible and have minimal infrastructure requirements (PC
versus UNIX based systems; various data management protocols; peripheral
hardware requirements) and a minimum of mandated data structure
requirements. Metadata are needed and development efforts must be fully
supported. For the data system to be successful there must be an incentive
for users to contribute data to the community system. NSF and the
community could develop a system of rewards via some formal system of
citation. A mechanism for publication of data sets (with or without
interpretation) may interface with emerging digital publication systems
and it is conceivable that the data system initiative may be able to
enlist different societies (AGU, GSA, AAPG, etc.) to support electronic
publication of data sets, depending upon the contents.
INTERIM STEERING COMMITTEE (A. Krishna Sinha, coordinator) Petrology-Geochemistry-Isotope 1. Frank Spear, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 518-276-6103,
spear@rpi.edu Tectonics 4. Roy Dokka, Louisiana State University, 225-388-2975,
rkdokka@geol.lsu.edu Stratigraphy-Geobiology 6. Walter Snyder, Boise State University, 208-426-3645
wsnyder@boisestate.edu Geophysics 9. William Holt, SUNY, Stony Brook 516-632-8215,
wholt@horizon.ess.sunysb.edu Hydrology-Surficial Processes 12. Ramon Arrowsmith, Arizona State, 480-965-3541
ramon.arrowsmith@asu.edu GIS/Database/Facility 15. Dogan Seber, Cornell, 607-255-1159 ds51@cornell.edu |