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SOFTWARE SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MODELING: A MOU WORKING GROUP
Citation:
Laniak, G F. SOFTWARE SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MODELING: A MOU WORKING GROUP. Presented at Interagency Conference on Hydrology, Las Vegas, NV, July 28-August 1, 2002.
Impact/Purpose:
The current focus is to 1.) develop, distribute, and support the FRAMES-3MRA modeling technology, 2) to apply the FRAMES-3MRA modeling technology for the purposes of executing national and site-specific risk assessments, 3) to complete model application case studies to explore model performance issues, such as, model validation, 5) to collaborate with other Federal Agencies in an effort to leverage expertise and resources associated with common modeling interests, and 6) to monitor ongoing developments at the Office of Solid Waste and within the environmental modeling community in an effort to identify new needs for science modules and locate or develop solutions within the FRAMES 3MRA modeling system.
Description:
A workgroup was formed in conjunction with a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among six Federal Agencies to pursue collaborative research in technical areas related to environmental modeling. Among the primary objectives of the MOU are to 1) provide a mechanism for the cooperating Federal Agencies to pursue a common technology in multimedia environmental modeling with a shared scientific basis, 2) reduce redundancies and improve the common technology through exchange and comparisons of multimedia environmental models, software and related databases, 3) exchange information related to multimedia environmental modeling tools and supporting scientific information for environmental risk assessments, protocols for establishing linkages between disparate databases and models, and development and use of a common model-data framework, and 4) facilitate the establishment of working partnerships among the cooperating Federal Agencies' technical staff in order to enhance productivity and mutual benefit through collaboration on mutually-defined research studies. In direct support of the goals of the MOU this workgroup focuses specifically on the computer software infrastructure necessary to support state-of-the-science environmental systems analyses. It is important to differentiate the software infrastructure from the science-based environmental modeling components contained therein. The infrastructure represents a set of software development standards and tools that facilitate the development and application of environmental models. It specifically does not include or address the science embedded within the models and associated databases. The infrastructure is important at three levels: the standards level, the component level and the integrated environmental assessment level. Software development standards, in this context, define requirements and protocols for designing and implementing software such that it can execute within a larger system in coordination with other, complementary, modeling software. The standards are applied at the component and integrated analysis levels. The second level of infrastructure includes software components for managing data access, transfer, and analysis. These components facilitate the integrated use of the science-based models and databases included in the modeling system. The third level relates to the automated organization and execution of collections of modeling components for the purpose of performing integrated assessments in support of environmental research and organizational decision making. This presentation will describe, in some detail, the formation of the workgroup, its members, the mechanics of the collaborative relationship established to date, and the specific technical activities currently being pursued.