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3
Grand Water Challenges and Research Questions
In 1998, the National Science Foundation (NSF) asked the National
Research Council (NRC) to identify the most important and challenging
scientific questions across all environmental sciences. These were to be called
the "grand challenges." In response, an NRC committee was formed and after
two years of study published a report titled Grand Challenges in Environmental
Sciences (NRC, 2001). These challenges were to improve our understanding of:
· biogeochemical cycles and how they may be impacted by human
activities;
· biological diversity and ecosystem functioning and how they are
impacted by human activities;
· climate variability, and how it is being altered by human activity;
· hydrologic forecasting to predict changes in surface water,
groundwater, sediment, and interactions with land and aquatic ecosystems;
· infectious disease pathogens and their relationship with the
environment, ecosystems, other pathogens, hosts/receptors, and their threats to
other living organisms;
· institutional impacts on human use of environmental resources;
· land-use interactions with hydrology, ecology, and human welfare; and
· life cycle of materials used by humanity over space and time.
Our committee believes these "grand challenges" are as relevant today as
they were when published, especially from a water science and technology
perspective (the scope of our assignment). Each of these challenges can be
better met, and perhaps some can be only met effectively, by the implementation
of the proposed environmental observatories for hydrology, environmental
sciences and engineering, and ecology.
In this chapter we identify some important and complex, water-related
research issues and questions that stem from these grand challenges.
Successfully addressing these issues and questions will depend largely on the
availability of large-scale, comprehensive, and integrated physical, biological,
chemical, and social data and information derived from these environmental
observatories.
21
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22 CLEANER and NSF's Environmental Observatories
RESEARCH CRITERIA
The NSF has identified several research criteria for the types of questions
the Collaborative Large-scale Engineering Analysis Network for Environmental
Research (CLEANER) seeks to address. They are explained below. The
committee believes these criteria can be used to set priorities not only for the
research activities associated with the environmental observatories, but also for
the design of the environmental observatories themselves, including data to be
collected and the characteristics of the associated cyberinfrastructure networks.
The research results supported by data collected through CLEANER could lead
to substantial advances in the environmental sciences and have measurable,
positive effects on the environment. CLEANER should strive to achieve this
by:
· providing advanced sensor systems for data collection, advanced tools
for data mining, aggregation, analysis, and visualization, and predictive
modeling of environmental management strategies;
· identifying effective adaptive management approaches for human-
stressed complex environmental systems based on enhanced site observations,
experimentation, modeling, engineering analysis, and design;
· promoting and improving interactions among a broader group of
engineering and science communities, including social scientists, in ways that
result in greater benefits than would come from individual separate
investigations; and
· engaging the academic and government scientists collaboratively in
identifying, examining, and providing possible solutions to complex real-world
problems.
These goals can serve as criteria for selecting the broad research questions to be
addressed using the data and infrastructure provided by CLEANER. This
chapter identifies some research areas illustrative of what should help achieve
these goals.
RESEARCH AREAS
Research appropriate for inclusion in CLEANER can be divided into three
main categories: (1) interactions among humans, the environment, and
ecosystems; (2) innovative engineering approaches for improving water quantity
and quality management; and (3) design of CLEANER's environmental
observatories. The first two categories group research questions designed to
advance knowledge of phenomena and processes and to provide tools and
information for water management to sustain a healthy economy. The research
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Grand Water Challenges and Research Questions 23
questions in these two categories represent challenges in water environmental
science and engineering. The third category includes research issues related to
the design of CLEANER observatories and the development of tools and
technology that will permit the collection of long-term data over large scales.
These three broad research areas are obvious candidates for inclusion within the
proposed CLEANER environmental observatory network program.
Interactions among Humans, the Environment, and Ecosystems
Research Question: How can we better understand biogeochemical cycling in
river and estuarine systems? How are these cycles influenced by human
activities?
Over the years, our nation's urban river/estuarine systems have been
degraded by habitat/watershed alteration and by numerous stressors, including
rural and urban point and non-point runoff, industrial waste discharges,
combined sewer overflows, landfill leachate, atmospheric deposition, and
invasive species. These stressors have altered the cycling of nutrients, in
particular carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in terrestrial and aquatic systems.
Although these perturbations to hydrologic systems are particularly noticeable in
urban areas and in coastal areas close to population centers, they are observed in
many other parts of the nation, even in more pristine environments.
Environmental observatory data should reveal how natural systems may be
perturbed by humans and their activities. To this end, one strategy may be to
develop similar observational/model-building programs focusing on a range
from the more pristine to the more heavily impacted systems. A comprehensive
network of sensors deployed in these increasingly impacted systems is likely to
shed new light on physical, chemical, biological, and geological processes. This
approach would likely have a high degree of success if the proposed
environmental observatories provide data of sufficient temporal and spatial
resolution to quantify the dominant environmental processes.
The development of continuous measurement technologies would provide a
unique opportunity to understand processes controlling perturbed aquatic
systems. As human population continues to increase, these ecosystems will
likely be stressed further. Consequently, evolving patterns of water quality
variability are anticipated. Historically, scientific studies have examined such
variability primarily at weekly, seasonal, and annual time scales in recognition
of complex biogeochemical interactions and their associated time scales.
However, recent studies indicate that short-term (e.g., hourly) water quality
variability can greatly increase our understanding of processes and can lead to
strategies for mitigating adverse human impacts on the water quality and
ecology of our nation's urban rivers and estuaries (Cloern et al., 1989;
DiLorenzo et al., 2004). The observatory approach seems well suited to study
such variability and develop associated physical and biogeochemical controls.
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24 CLEANER and NSF's Environmental Observatories
Research Question: To what extent can humans alter their environment and its
ecosystems while still sustaining desired levels of ecosystem function? How far
can humans alter water regimes and landscapes before recovery cannot be
economically achieved?
Environmental and ecological systems, of which humans are an integral
part, can be overwhelmed by human actions, thus compromising system
services. Water quality managers use the term "assimilative capacity" to denote
just how much of some pollutant can be discharged into a water body without
violating some threshold condition, such as a water quality concentration
standard, or the minimum conditions that will sustain aquatic life. The focus has
been on modeling, predicting, and managing the pollutant assimilative capacity
of water. CLEANER's proposed environmental observatories would provide
the opportunity to address larger, more complex, and multi-component
environmental systems. The focus and scope of management could be expanded
from the typical point and non-point sources of pollutants and smaller scale
activities to the consideration of system level issues in landscapes and
ecosystems.
The importance of ecosystem services as a critical component of our
human-dominated environment is well known (Palmer et al., 2004). The
improved understanding that could be gained from research stemming from
CLEANER would enhance our ability to better manage and protect those
ecosystem services. Research undertaken using the data obtained from
environmental observatory programs could identify just how far humans can
stress ecosystems before catastrophic regime shifts produce a loss of services
that cannot be economically engineered, restored, or replaced. Observatories
where a range of differently stressed conditions exist and are monitored, and that
are subjected to different management strategies, should provide the data and
information needed to better understand the causes of such shifts in ecosystem
states and services and how to prevent them. For example, the Everglades
restoration project in south Florida is essentially an existing large-scale
environmental observatory in which there is a range of environmental states and
ecosystem conditions. Human activities have altered many of the Everglades
water regimes and landscapes. The monitoring and study of this system over
time gives the managers of that system useful information on how it works and
how to better manage and restore it (NRC, 2003). Observatory networks in
other regions of the country can help fill this information need in those regions.
Through observatory programs, there exists the potential for the
development of modeling techniques that will offer more reliable long time
period predictions, which will be adapted and validated over time as new data
become available. These models, supported by observatory data, will
continually refine our understanding of ecosystems by offering a feedback loop:
environmental data are used to build and run models and model outputs are used
to assess initial assumptions that drove data collection so that new data
collection can further refine the models and improve prediction. This iterative
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Grand Water Challenges and Research Questions 25
process must respond and adapt to changing environmental/ecosystem and
human factors. Further, we must recognize the critical social component and
sustain a long-term commitment to data collection and model development
needed to continue the research needed to support any proposed adaptive
prediction and management strategy.
Research Question: How will changes in climate, land cover, and land use
affect water quantity and quality regimes and how will that impact ecosystem
health and other uses of water such as for drinking, irrigation, industry, and
recreation?
Climate and land use are two of the most important factors influencing
aquatic ecosystems. Both of these factors will continue to undergo change in the
next half century or longer. Climate change is well documented, yet how it will
affect ecosystem function over time is less certain. Land use change is known to
affect stream response, yet the pathways of water and constituent transport are
not well understood, especially in human-dominated landscapes (Allan, 2004).
Environmental observatories should enable scientists and engineers to document
hydrologic pathways and understand the consequences of differences in network
structure for aquatic ecosystems.
Questions regarding land use change that alter landscapes and affect
ecosystem function include: how much does strip mining affect water quality;
what is the effect of paving in urban areas on ground water recharge; and how
much of the nutrient load in an estuary is caused by poultry farming?
Understanding how the nation's aquatic resources and their ability to provide
ecosystem services will respond to changes in climate and land use is an
important, but difficult research goal. An observatory approach offers the
promise of providing answers to these and other questions that are difficult if not
impossible to answer using more conventional research strategies.
The direct effects of climate and land use change on lakes, rivers, and
wetlands, although the subject of many studies, are still difficult to predict
across a range of local, regional, and continental scales. Because lakes, rivers,
and wetlands provide many important ecosystem services, such as water for
drinking, irrigation, industry, recreation, and waste treatment, natural and
socioeconomic processes are intertwined in complex ways that must be taken
into account. For example, as aquatic resources change in quality, humans
respond in a variety of political, social, and economic ways to mitigate (or
exacerbate) these changes. The reciprocal feedbacks inherent in coupled human
and natural systems (humans affect ecosystems which then affect humans)
makes understanding how climate and land use change will affect aquatic
ecosystems even more complex and difficult.
Developing the needed understanding will require a series of activities
including long-term observations, comparative studies, modeling, and
experiments. Environmental observatory systems have the potential to inform
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26 CLEANER and NSF's Environmental Observatories
and support all of these activities. Observatory system activities must include
measurements and modeling of flows of water and solutes (including inputs,
outputs, and transport and changes within the system), detailed observation and
modeling of land use change at a variety of spatial scales, methods of making
regional scale climate projections, and forecasting human responses to, and
economic impacts of, changes in the quantities and qualities of aquatic
resources. This better understanding should facilitate the development of
forecasting tools to explore alternative future scenarios. These tools could be
used to examine how aquatic ecosystems are affected by climate change and
alternative engineering infrastructure designs, management policies, agricultural
practices, and other environmental modifications under human control. A
CLEANER network could focus on biogeochemical processes and contaminant
fate and transport and interface with various biological investigations. The
following are examples of the kinds of questions that could be addressed:
· How does the replacement of small streams with stormwater pipes or
tile drains (or the loss of small streams because of groundwater pumping) alter
the amount of nitrogen (or other elements or contaminants of interest) exported
from a watershed?
· Is there a threshold of network alteration after which the behavior of
the system is fundamentally different?
· How can strategically restoring a wetland in the landscape affect
processes?
· Can network analysis contribute new insights or approaches that would
lead to a better understanding of the movement of water, elements, and
organisms in natural and human designed stream networks?
Innovative Engineering Approaches for Improving Water Quantity
and Quality Management
Research Question: How can we improve hydrologic forecasting?
An intelligent environmental control system (IECS) could be developed that
would incorporate comprehensive hydrologic data into the design and operation
of complex water resources systems. An IECS would allow for water flow and
water quality monitoring of an urban ecosystem and would help control the use
of resources to enhance and protect ecosystem function and human health. This
system could include:
1. a network of sensors to measure flow;
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Grand Water Challenges and Research Questions 27
2. robotic water quality monitoring sites deployed in the watershed of an
urban ecosystem;
3. near real-time analysis capability that uses the sensor data with
sophisticated "whole-system" models to forecast conditions;
4. a robust communication system linking sensors and automated models
with "control sites;" and
5. control sites where environmental managers and/or automatic control
devices could act on the forecast and make modifications to preserve the quality
of resources such as water supplies and receiving waters.
Local, state, and federal agencies, including the National Weather Service,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and U.S. Geological Survey,
have made investments in providing information for forecasting. Partnerships
with these agencies can provide systems that can be used by water resource
planners and/or managers to evaluate and make decisions on the use of alternate
water supplies, alternative levels of drinking or wastewater treatment, or
alternative locations of effluent discharge. For example, during a drought,
surface water sensors and water quality models might indicate that dissolved
oxygen will decrease to unacceptable levels prompting wastewater treatment
plant operators to decrease nutrient discharge to receiving water. If the "control
loop" extends to long-term policy-level decisions or near real-time actuation of a
sluice gate/valve, such an IECS could significantly enhance the protection and
use of urban ecosystems and the health and safety of its human inhabitants.
Assessing ecosystem condition, modeling, and process-level studies are
critical components in programs of environmental research and management.
Assessing ecosystem condition establishes linkages to human and ecosystem
health, provides insight into watershed processes, supports development, testing,
and application of mathematical models, assesses efficacy of environmental
management and control efforts, and provides a vehicle to educate students and
engage the public in important local environmental issues. Mathematical
models are effective integrators of assessment data and related research
activities, including the results of process studies. They provide a quantitative
vehicle to test the understanding of complex ecosystems. Further, successfully
verified models provide the foundation to evaluate management alternatives and
guide rehabilitation of impacted ecosystems. Process- level studies provide a
basic understanding of phenomena and, when conducted quantitatively, can be
used in process model formulation and parameterization. Assessment,
modeling, and process-level studies should result in improved ecosystem
management.
While prototypes of the IECS have been developed, there are several
barriers to a fully functioning, integrated system that need to be overcome.
These barriers include the development of sensors for several critical water
parameters (e.g., nutrients, toxic contaminants); the development, testing, and
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28 CLEANER and NSF's Environmental Observatories
application of predictive water quality models and the integration of these
models with the near real-time data acquisition system; process-level studies and
field experiments to provide a quantitative understanding of critical processes,
and to parameterize and test models; and the timely transfer, processing, and
management of streams of environmental quality data. We now lack sensor
technology to assess anything more than rudimentary biological processes and
phenomena. It may be possible to use specific photosynthetic pigments to
characterize algal assemblages and detect potentially harmful algae, but what
about vertebrates and invertebrates? And having real-time knowledge of where
fish are swimming in a river system could be extremely valuable in making
decisions on modifications to dam infrastructure, reservoir water releases, water
diversions, and wastewater effluent discharges during critical periods.
Research Question: How can we find solutions to existing and emerging
problems involving contaminants in the environment that affect ecosystems and
human health?
A number of issues have emerged that involve the fate and transport of
contaminants and are of national concern. Some of these issues are in need of
innovative engineering research based on data that could be obtained from the
observatories. We need research results that can assist managers in dealing with
contaminated sediments and contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and
household products affecting ecosystems and human health.
Containing or removing contaminated sediments is one of the most difficult
site environmental remediation issues managers face today. Management
actions typically are designed to reduce or eliminate the risk of contaminated
sediments to humans and the environment. Contaminated sediments in water
bodies are typically subject to temporally and spatially varying overlying flows.
Under extreme high flows, often resulting from storm events, these
contaminated sediments can be suspended and transported to new sites. The
volumes of these contaminated sediments can exceed, in some cases, millions of
cubic meters. This creates challenges not only when considering their removal
but also their disposal on landfill sites. In addition, the removal of contaminants
from the sediments typically results in the contamination of even more water.
All of these problems make remediation of contaminated sediments a difficult
and costly process. Effective low-cost management of contaminated sediments
is rarely possible. Research is needed on management options that do not
require removing the contaminated sediments. An environmental observatory in
a location such as the Great Lakes or similar setting would provide the
opportunity to monitor and study impacts of sediment management measures on
the aquatic environment.
Residuals from pharmaceutical and personal care products are entering the
aquatic environment. Their long-term impacts on natural ecosystems or on
human health are not known. A challenge for observatories is to determine what
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Grand Water Challenges and Research Questions 29
products are the most deleterious for long-term ecosystem health and to develop
sensors to measure them at relevant and temporal scales. Investigations using
molecular analytical techniques might provide additional information about
cellular changes that affect bacteria and algae within an ecosystem. Several new
methods exist that need further development and application to examine the
effects of contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals, on ecosystem health. Near
real-time monitoring of water microbes could be realized to determine
population mutations and information about community structure level (e.g.,
population shifts, changes in diversity, and tolerance to stress).
Design of CLEANER's Environmental Observatories
Three overarching design features incorporated into the research questions
will distinguish the CLEANER environmental observatories from other
programs. These design features of CLEANER's environmental observatories
should:
1. include multiple types of sensors for collecting comprehensive and
integrated environmental data over large spatial and long temporal scales;
2. include a robust and adaptable cyberinfrastructure that can link to other
databases; and
3. permit the collection and use of social science data along with physical,
chemical, and biological data needed to address environmental problems caused
by human activities.
Use of Sensors
The development and implementation of various types of remote and in-situ
sensors and their data transmission networks is an important and prominent
component of CLEANER and other environmental observatories. For many
chemical and biological parameters we would like to measure, we are sensor
limited. A report entitled Sensors for Environmental Observatories (NSF, 2005)
from a NSF-sponsored workshop in December 2004, points out the need for:
· new types of sensors with new capabilities;
· the ability to link sensors to a broader cyberinfrastructure network; and
· long-term autonomous deployment and maintenance.
Physical sensors, such as for the measurement of heat, are the most developed,
whereas chemical and biological sensors are the least developed. Networks of
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30 CLEANER and NSF's Environmental Observatories
embedded sensors are emerging that allow for integrated, intelligent, self-
regulating, and self-correcting systems. New sensor technologies include
nanosensors that are embedded within plants and animals as well as in water
supply pipes, treatment plants, and reservoirs and wastewater collection and
treatment systems. This technology also includes computational tools for data
mining, sensor calibration, and verification. Working with the federal agencies,
near real-time monitoring with such sensor and associated technology with ties
to weather data, satellite information, etc., can improve the accuracy and breadth
of models used for predictions and reduce response times to natural or human-
caused adverse environmental events.
Integrated Data Collection and Storage
The individual environmental observatories under CLEANER should be
problem-oriented and hence focus on data collection relevant to current and
possible future problems. As problems change, scientists and engineers face a
major challenge in predicting what data should be collected today that will meet
the data needs of researchers and managers in the future. For example, data
collected to provide regular surveillance of condition and state indicators might
fail to meet future needs for problem analysis. For example, the widespread
occurrence of antibiotics in freshwaters was not anticipated or monitored until
fairly recently, and we are not currently monitoring nanoparticples in the
environment. Surveillance programs may be based on parameters and frequency
of sampling that can provide time correlation, but little insight into process.
Thus we have snapshots of condition or state with little correlation to
mechanisms, causes, or possible outcomes. As scientific knowledge increases,
an evaluation of the adequacy of the surveillance program needs to be
addressed. In a quality assurance plan, the starting point for a data collection
effort is the identification of the program and project objectives. Objective
statements drive both the data collection and analysis efforts. Quality control is
an important issue for large databases if the data are to be compared.
A challenge is how to control and record data quality collected from the
field by different methods and analyzed by different laboratories and by the use
of different types of sensors. The challenge in design of an observatory network
will be adopting methods to assure that problem solutions are not just local and
that the maximum utility is achieved from any surveillance data. The
observatories should not just make measurements; the observatories should use
measurements to identify principles and processes that are transferable to other
locations.
The need exists for the development of a system to house and share the data
obtained from the observatories. A robust cyberinfrastructure that provides a
common framework and can link to multiple databases will facilitate a national
resource for hydrologic, environmental, and social data. The cyberinfrastructure
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Grand Water Challenges and Research Questions 31
issues related to storage, access to, and sharing of data from the observatories
are discussed in more detail in Chapter 4.
Integration of the Social Sciences
Each of the NSF planned environmental observatories calls for the
integration of social science data and research along with the hydrologic,
environmental, and ecological research programs. This is absolutely necessary
if human interactions with the environment are to be better understood. How
can this integration best be done? Harnessing the value that social science can
bring will require reaching out to involve and fund the social science community
and to help NSF articulate why social sciences are a vital part of the observatory
mission.
While all environmental observatory plans call for the integration of the
social sciences and biophysical sciences and data measurement and collection
capabilities, this may not happen unless NSF adequately funds such activities.
Although the origins of the proposed environmental observatories came from
physical sciences and engineering, this makes the need for a strong social
science component no less important. The primary reason research in the
natural sciences and in engineering is funded is to improve the welfare of
society. But how society values and uses the advances in the natural sciences
and engineering is a social science research issue. Research in the "policy
relevance" of the observatory programs is vital to their initiation and
continuation over the long term, and to further understanding the dynamics
between humans and the state of their environment.
Watersheds are not pristine, closed systems. Accordingly, analyses of the
fate, transport, restoration, preservation, and human impact of environmental
resources depend on intervening social variables. Many environmental systems
are highly engineered. This engineering may be formal (e.g., the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers operating a reservoir system or the stormwater infrastructure
of a city) or informal (e.g., pollutant deposition arising from various human
activities). Cause and effect in the biophysical system cannot be satisfactorily
demonstrated unless these social variables are part of measurement and
modeling. Moreover, ecological and social interactions work both ways.
Ecological conditions can foster economic activity (natural amenities lead to
employment and development), which can in turn lead to ecological
degradation. Social scientists are interested in the human affects of and
responses to these decisions and interactions. And the results of social science
research should feed back into the biophysically predictive models, because
human activity affects biophysical outcomes.
Determining the value of information is a social science issue. Social
science helps explain how the value of information is measured or predicted.
Social science can help relate biophysical change to its impact on human
communities. And social science may provide partners more adept at public
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32 CLEANER and NSF's Environmental Observatories
communication. Without participation of the social sciences, the biophysical
and environmental engineering focus of the observatories may be missing
opportunities to demonstrate their broader value. Finally, the observatory-based
CLEANER programs need to educate social scientists. The social science
community has a limited understanding of what these programs are and their
future potential for the social as well as physical sciences. Harnessing the value
that social science can provide will bring added public (and political) support
but will require significant outreach to the social science community.
SUMMARY
This chapter identifies some of the major challenges that could be addressed
by those involved in the planning, design, and operation or use of a CLEANER
environmental observatory network. Having a long-term large-scale integrated
data base obtained from environmental observatories should make it much more
likely that research directed at the challenges similar to the ones we pose will
begin to provide knowledge and will lead to more effective engineering and
management actions that improve, protect, and sustain our environmental
resources and ecosystems into an uncertain future.
Regarding the interactions among humans, the aquatic environment, and
ecosystems, a CLEANER network of observatories could undertake research to:
· better understand biogeochemical cycling in river and estuarine
systems and how these cycles are influenced by human activities;
· understand the extent to which humans can alter their environment and
its ecosystems while still sustaining desired levels of ecosystem function and
determine how far humans can alter water regimes and landscapes before
recovery cannot be economically achieved; and
· learn how changes in climate, land cover, and land use affect water
quantity and quality regimes and how those changes will impact ecosystem
health and other uses of water such as for drinking, irrigation, industry, and
recreation.
Regarding an increased understanding and improved management of our
biophysical environment, a CLEANER network of observatories could
undertake research to:
· improve our capabilities in hydrologic forecasting and
· find solutions to existing and emerging problems involving
contaminants in the environment that affect ecosystems and human health.
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Grand Water Challenges and Research Questions 33
There are also research challenges associated with the design and operation
of CLEANER's environmental observatories. These include issues related to:
· the use, deployment, and evaluation of multiple types of sensors for
collecting comprehensive and integrated environmental data over large spatial
and long temporal scales;
· the development of the components of a robust and adaptable
cyberinfrastructure that can link to other databases; and
· the collection and use of social science data along with physical,
chemical, and biological data needed to address environmental problems caused
by human activities.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
environmental observatory
