Opportunities for NCSA in the Sustainability Arena
Barbara S. MinskerAssociate Provost Fellow for
Sustainability andProfessor of Civil and Environmental
Engineering
What Is Sustainability?What Is Sustainability?
• Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
From Our Common Future: The Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (“the Brundtland Commission report”)
Greenland ice Melting 1992, 2002, and 2005
1992 2002 2005
Source: ACIA, 2004 and CIRES, 2005
In 1992 scientists measured this amount of melting in Greenland as indicated by red areas on the map
Ten years later, in 2002, the melting was much worse
And in 2005, it accelerated dramatically yet again
Global Sustainability Problems: Climate Change
Source: Second Nature
Imaginations unbound Sources include: Heidelberg Collaboratory, Minsker, GMES
Integrated, Information-Based Decision Making
Visualization Dashboard
Information-Based
Decisions
Calibration
Automated Provenance
Human, Physical,
Virtual Sensors
…Seamless Computing…
Bots
, Act
ors
Archives
Data Fusion
ModelingMultimodal
Imaginations unbound
IACAT Virtual Environmental Observatory (VEO) for Intensively Managed Environmental Systems (IMES)
• Objective: Explore the benefits of real-time adaptive sensing and modeling for improving sustainability
Nitrogen Nanosensor
-1.2 -1.0 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0.0-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0.0
0.1
Cu
rren
t (m
A)
Potential vs. Ag/AgCl (V)
Blank electrolyte (1 M NaOH) 100 mM Nitrate
Nitrate reduction peak
Imaginations unbound
IACAT VEO Data & Model Flow Diagram
NSF DataNet Partnership
NSF DataNet Partnership
National Curation and Preservation
Services
National Curation and Preservation
Services
HIS Central, Geospatial One-
Stop, …
HIS Central, Geospatial One-
Stop, …
Search and Discovery Services
Search and Discovery Services
Project Observational and Derived Data Services
Desktop Applications
WorkflowArcView
HydroDesktopExcel
Web 2.0 Clients
Data Access, Modeling and Analysis, Dynamic Visual Analysis, Community
Education and Outreach
3D Stereo Visualizations
Use of Flows, Patterns, realistic rendering, etc. to improve comprehension
External Data Sources
EPA, NOAAUSGS,
UniversityOther…
External Data Sources
EPA, NOAAUSGS,
UniversityOther…
Web Service Web Service
Web Service Web Service
Web Service Web Service
Standards-based Cloud Service InfrastructureStandards-based Cloud Service InfrastructureHPC Compute
ServicesHPC Compute
Services
Web Services Web Services
Derived Data
QA & QC ServicesVirtual SensorsVisualizations
Derived Data
QA & QC ServicesVirtual SensorsVisualizations
IACAT Virtual Environmental Observatory
Modeling and Analysis
Model ExecutionEnsemble Modeling
Statistical Analysis and Optimization
Modeling and Analysis
Model ExecutionEnsemble Modeling
Statistical Analysis and Optimization
Data Management
Geospatial DataStreams
Metadata Provenance Documents
Proposed Sustainability Proposed Sustainability CollaborativeCollaborative• Ultimately, a global network of partnering
universities/colleges and their communities• Initially, the Illinois campus and its:
– Watersheds/aquifer– Foodsheds– EnergyshedsIncluding their interconnecting social-, economic-,
and eco-systems
Illinois Collaborative FocusIllinois Collaborative Focus
Food Water
Energy
High Quality of Life for All People
Role of Land Grant Institutions
Technology
Robust & Diverse Ecosystems
Source: Energy Biosciences Institute
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