ANSWERS TO EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE QUESTIONS: THE EVOLUTION OF INFORMATICS AT THE USGS

The USGS Science Strategy (USGS Circular 1309) released in 2007 identified data integration as one of its cross-cutting strategic science directions and states: “The USGS will use its information resources to create a more integrated and accessible environment for its vast resources of past and future data. It will invest in cyberinfrastructure, nurture and cultivate programs in Earth-system science informatics, and participate in efforts to build a global integrated science and computing platform”

USGS is constructing a service oriented architecture (SOA) for all USGS data and science applications; a complex challenge for a 129 year old institution that has been collecting earth science data since its inception. This effort requires operating on many aspects of architecture creation simultaneously while dealing with extensive legacy analog and digital data. Projects are underway that include everything from building a federated database warehouse, web services for discovery of data, creating community specific data models, and building integrated earth system scientific applications. Complex issues of governance, platforms, standards, and active engagement in international and national informatics efforts require development of the SOA to be collaborative, iterative, and experimental. The following provides highlights of projects underway to create this service oriented architecture for earth system science.

Data Discovery - As a first step, USGS is engaged in evaluating the agency's data holdings and creating a searchable, spatially enabled digital catalog that provides discovery tools, metadata, and knowledge of where the scientific data is held and what it pertains to. A web-based pilot system called the Geospatial Management Information System (GMIS) was recently completed and provides one-stop access to different sources of USGS data, including detailed information on the thousands of USGS science projects being conducted, employees and offices, and science publications. The system allows the user to search information by topic and geographic area. It will be expanded to become a catalog service for all USGS data holdings as well as for the physical material collections of the state geological surveys and Department of Interior bureaus. The National Digital Catalog of Data and Materials will be populated in 2008 by the state geological surveys and USGS geologic programs and will contain metadata on collections of data and materials such as core, rock samples, well logs, engineering data, and maps.

Map Services - The USGS has created, and is in the process of creating, national, regional, and topical map services in a wide range of scales and resolution. The National Map (http://nationalmap.gov/) provides imagery, elevation, hydrography, geographic names and land cover. The Mineral Resources on-Line Spatial Data service (http://mrdata.usgs.gov/) provides national databases and maps of mines, historical mining, mineral occurrences, geochemistry of rocks and sediments, lithology, geology, and geophysics of the United States. Both the National Map and the Mineral Resources on-Line Spatial Data service include map browsers, download sites, and web services.

Integrated Science Applications - The PAGER system (Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response) is an automated system developed by the USGS (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/pager/) to integrate multiple data streams, rapidly assess the number of people, cities, and regions exposed to severe shaking by an earthquake, and inform emergency responders, government agencies, and the media to the scope of the potential damage. PAGER monitors the National and Global Seismological Networks; retrieves shaking intensities reported by people in the epicenter region via the online USGS "Did You Feel It?" system; generates a site-specific ground motion amplification map; and computes the population affected at each intensity level. Within 15-30 minutes, depending on the location and size of the earth quake, PAGER produces regional ground shaking estimates using the reported intensities, the site-specific ground-motion amplification map, and seismic wave attenuation equations that account for the variation of seismic shaking intensity with magnitude, distance and depth. Final information is distributed in multiple formats and through multiple media including Google map display web services on-line, automatic e-mail alerts, and community standard XML format.

Two significant USGS collaborative efforts that bring global communities together to address global scale societal issues are the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) and the Delta Research and Global Observation Network (DRAGON). The FEWS NET grew out of an effort started by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the wake of the devastating 1985 famine in Ethiopia. Today it is a modern network of multiple agencies supplying multiple data streams from both ground observations and satellite remote sensing. These data feed into a series of web services and programs to produce products ranging from key vegetation indices to sophisticated daily flood models. The network identifies and provides early warning for famine in sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, Central America, and Haiti. The USGS EROS Data Center (USGS/EDC) works in cooperation with USAID, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, (NOAA), and Chemonics International Incorporated to provide the data, information and analyses needed to support the FEWS NET activity. NASA and NOAA are responsible for the collection and processing of satellite data that provide the spatial coverage and temporal frequency necessary for monitoring both vegetation condition and rainfall. Chemonics maintains a staff of field representatives responsible for key field observations and monitoring regional and country-specific conditions. The USGS/EROS Data Center provides end to end data management, processing, analyses, GIS, and remote sensing technical support, crop and flood modeling, as well as long-term data archive and distribution services. The African Data Dissemination Service (ADDS) provides additional web services.

DRAGON is an effort recently initiated by USGS to create a global science framework for comparing, integrating, and predicting the key drivers and management practices in large delta ecosystems. Large delta systems provide habitat for a broad diversity of flora and fauna as well as life sustaining agriculture, commerce, and fisheries for hundreds of millions of people. The project will require an extensive effort to make large volumes of ecological, hydrological, geological and biogeochemical information interoperable; create a common data and discovery portal; and develop community tools and models through a global “community of practice” in delta system management. The pilot partners USGS with the Chinese Qingdao Institute for Marine Geology to develop the conceptual frameworks for the Lower Mississippi Valley simultaneously with the Huang He River. The resulting joint comparative model will be expanded to include river deltas in the Netherlands, Russia, Vietnam, and other countries with similar deltaic systems.

References

U.S. Geological Survey, 2007, Facing tomorrow's challenges—U.S. Geological Survey science in the decade 2007–2017: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1309, x + 70 p.