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At MSU we
envision the 21st century as an exciting period when hydrology enters the age
of cyber-enabled discovery and innovation, and MSU stands at the forefront of
that development for Michigan . We imagine a future with an intelligent
Michigan Cyberinfrastructure that is capable of substantially enhancing our
ability to understand complex systems, address integrated science questions,
and reduce the cost of managing Michigan 's water resources. The integrated
cyber environment will dynamically link a statewide, multiscale database and
sensor network and a novel, realtime steering platform for multiscale
modeling, data mining, visualization, and information delivery. Development
of this Cyberinfrastructure will transform hydrological science and
engineering by integrating research, education, outreach, and science-based
management.
Capitalizing
on MDEQ's massive data integration and MSU's innovative computational
thinking, we are pushing the envelope, creating new possibilities, and
pursuing the future. Come join us.
NSF's
Strategic Direction and Michigan's Unique Achievements
Many
of the elements necessary to make our bold vision possible already exist:
- Strong support for sustained cyber-based hydrologic
research –
Recently NSF has issued several white papers related to its strategic directions
in the 21st Century. In these papers NSF reveals their plan to invest
heavily in big data, cyberinfrastructure, and sustainability science and
engineering research. They stress the critical importance of leveraging
resources through multiple and diverse partnerships among academia,
industry and government, call for a hydrological research revolution and
the creation of large-scale, cyber-based community models, databases,
observatories, and discovery environments that integrate new and
historical hydrological and environmental data of all kinds.
- Michigan 's advanced large-scale, statewide
hydrologic/environmental databases – Recently Michigan Department of Environmental
Quality (MDEQ) invested significantly in massive statewide data
integration for environmental and water resources management. They now
have highly detailed statewide databases of Michigan's hydrologic
systems, including streams, lakes, wetlands, contamination sites, water
qualities, high resolution digital elevation models, hundreds of
thousands of water/oil/gas wells, estimated aquifer properties, aquifer
elevations, static water levels, groundwater recharge, baseflows, and
hundreds of other "parameters". This puts MDEQ one step
ahead of much of the rest of the country in developing comprehensive
statewide environmental databases.
- MSU's laboratory for real-time computing and
multi-scale modeling –
Recently MSU and NSF invested in this laboratory of excellence in the Civil
and Environmental Engineering Department on MSU's main campus. The
laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art modeling hardware,
software, databases, and visualization and communication capabilities.
Using newly developed approaches to model complex hydrologic systems
puts MSU's lab at the forefront of integrated, data-enabled,
hydrologic-modeling research. Working with MDEQ, the lab recently
live-linked its systems with MDEQ's statewide databases to develop a
high impact, GIS-enabled, statewide system for unified deterministic,
stochastic, and multiscale groundwater modeling and visualization which
has significantly improved Michigan 's ability to address complex
groundwater issues and manage its groundwater resources.
- MSU-MDEQ Jointly Funded Agreement. Recently MSU and MDEQ established a formal strategic
water resources partnership through a Jointly Funded Agreement (JFA).
Although MSU and MDEQ have both benefited from a long history of
cooperative projects, there has never before been a true mutual
partnership in place with a longer-term vision and opportunities to
integrate our respective programs. This new strategic partnership will
enable systematic interaction, sustainable collaboration, and
synergistic uses of university, state, and federal resources, and
provide critical leverage in our effort to compete for major federal
funding.
Seizing the Opportunity
MDEQ and MSU's unique achievements and partnership make
cyber-enabled discovery and innovation possible on a statewide scale. MDEQ's
databases provide detailed information on Michigan 's hydrologic systems.
MSU's unique computational capabilities provide tools for discovery and
innovation.
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