US-EU Research Cooperation Interagency/International Cooperation on Ecoinformatics

1. US-EU Research CooperationInteragency/International Cooperation on Ecoinformatics Interagency/International Cooperation on Ecoinformatics Brussels, Belgium September 2004 Bruce Bargmeyer +1 (510) 495-2905 bebargmeyer@lbl.gov

2. Ecoinformatics Information science and information technology for the environment • Sound information as the basis for environmental policy, decisions, and action • Information technology that supports and enables development of sound information • Facilitate interaction with the information • Human – Computer • Computer - Computer

3. Ecoinformatics • What are the key elements needed for an ecoinformatics marketplace? • What actions should this Interagency/ International Cooperation on Ecoinformatics take? • How can the I/ICE contribute to and draw on R&D programs of NSF, & EU DGs?

4. A Grand Challenge ? EEA DOE text text data data text data ambiente agricultura tiempo salud hunano industria turismo tierra agua aero environ agriculture climate human health industry tourism soil water air environ agriculture climate human health industry tourism soil water air DoD 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 text data environ agriculture climate human health industry tourism soil water air EPA 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 text data 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 ambiente agricultura tiempo salud huno industria turismo tierra agua aero 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 3268 0825 1348 5038 Others . . . Users Lots of users Lots of information systems Lots of Data Sources

5. Forever EEA DOE text text data data text data ambiente agricultura tiempo salud hunano industria turismo tierra agua aero environ agriculture climate human health industry tourism soil water air environ agriculture climate human health industry tourism soil water air DoD 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 text data environ agriculture climate human health industry tourism soil water air EPA 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 text data 3268 0825 1348 5038 2708 0000 2178 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 ambiente agricultura tiempo salud huno industria turismo tierra agua aero 123 345 445 670 248 591 308 3268 0825 1348 5038 Others . . . Users Lots of users Lots of information systems Lots of Data Sources

6. Actions • Much is already being done on environmental & health information • Billions are being spent on data, systems, analysis • Millions are being spent on information technology • Millions are being spent on standards • Millions being spent on semantics development and data harmonization • We can have great influence in bringing coherence to these expenditures/efforts with a tiny fraction of these funds.

7. Data Standards • Avoid a combinatorial explosion of data content, description, and metadata arrangements for information access and exchange. Data standards and metadata registries can help.

8. Then there is one point of access to our environmental data resources: Separate Environmental Media Legislation Separate Regs/ Procedures Regulated Facility Complete Warehouse Repository Separate Data Repositories State Regs Fed Air Reg Fed Water Reg Fed RCRA Reg Fed TSCA Reg “ “ State Laws CAA CWA RCRA TSCA “ “ Public/ Environmental Regulators/ Environmental Community Regulated Facility June 1996

9. Data and Semantics Management DBMS/XML/ Documents Dictionary DataElements Keyword Thesaurus Semantic Web Terms Ontology Concepts 11179 Metadata Registry

10. Possible Actions • Identify and develop ecoinformatics key elements • Lead semantics development efforts and provide semantic services • Lead standards efforts • E.g., for Reportnet, the Exchange Network, GBIF • Lead adaptation/adoption of emerging technology • Environmental semantic grid • Environmental data grid • Environmental computational grid • Hardware cycles • Software/models

11. Users World Wide Web Companies Data Services Metadata Registries Universities Environmental Data Grid Semantic Services TerminologyThesaurus Ontology Taxonomy Computation Services Agencies Data Standards Structured Metadata Others Environmental Semantics Grid Software: Models, Visualization, Analysis Agent systems Semantic Based Computing Environmental Computer Grid High Performance, cluster, Personal September 2004

12. A Possible Collaborative Project • Initiate an interconnected EU-US: • Environmental Data Grid • Environmental Computation Grid • Environmental Semantics Grid • Organize key infrastructure components for demonstration • E.g., EDR, EPA supercomputer, models • DOE/LBNL supercomputer (under DOE-EPA MOU) • XMDR Semantics Server • Interagency semantic and data resources e.g., GBIF • Hold competition for innovative use of the Grids. • Organize conference(s) • Funding: $50m over three years • Call it the Ecoinformatics Grid?

13. US – EU Collaboration • US • NSF • EPA and I/ICE partners • EU • DG Environment, DG Research, DG Information Society • EEA • R&D Lead and Project Central • US – LBNL • EU – JRC

14. Some Precedents • Cancer Bioinformatics Grid (caBIG) – expected funding $20m each year for three years • Includes the caDSR (a ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry like the EDR) • DOE Competition for Supercomputer time

15. Organizational Meeting • Berkeley, California • January 18 & 19, 2005 (Tue & Wed) • Host: LBNL • Location UC Berkeley Campus • Attendance: 25 or less

16. Discussion • To Follow