Project Proposed: This project, developing a river and water-resource consisting of a sensor network that forms an intelligent sensor fabric on a river basin, aims to provide real-time access to essential environmental and hydrological parameters at appropriate temporal and spatial scale for managing resources. Based on the INTELLIGENT RIVER®, this observation instrument comprises in situ sensors that form an expansive intelligent fabric. The instrument enables a new 1. Sensing Fabric: serves as the instrument lens and comprises multiple sensor networks. 2. Transit and Uplink System: responsible for relaying the data from the lens to a high-performance computing backbone. 3. Observation Management Middleware: responsible for normalizing data, ensuring validity, and routing the resulting data streams to end users applications 4. Repository and Presentation Services: serves as an instrument eyepiece and comprises an extensible set of applications. The design of the goals in 1 include broad support for interconnect standards, support for high-fidelity sensing, scalable temporal and spatial coverage, rapid and reliable deployment, and system longevity. In 2, these goals include adaptability to diverse environments, coverage scalability, fault-tolerant data transport, and low cost operating expense. Scalability, real-time performance, and fault-tolerant, secure messaging are included in 3. The default instrument package in 4 includes an application for archiving observation data to common scientific data formats and presenting that data to a broad audience of end-users, including scientists, educators, ecosystem managers, and legislative policy makers. It is evident that the growing mismatch between water supply and demand impacts us all: USA watersheds are in peril! This project does something about it with support from EPA and USAGE. Within the reach of environmental science, this work explores the connections among land use, energy production, climate effects, and water resources applying information and computing systems. The design, construction, and deployment of the instrument along the full reach of the Savanna River and two adjacent watersheds, covering a broad range of physical and chemical parameters should yield significant research contributions applicable to other watersheds and across subdisciplines, from sensor networking, to operating system design to cloud computing, to high performance ecosystem visualization. When complete, the instrument should enable a new class of data-intensive environmental ecological programs, ranging from fine-scale studies of river transport phenomenon to assessments of hydroelectric impacts on greenhouse gas concentrations, as well as the validation of kinetic-based quality models. Moreover, the instrument should yield significant research contributions in the areas of sensor networking, operating system, cloud computing, and high-performance ecosystem visualization. Broader Impacts: The impact should be felt both regionally and nationally. At the national level, the instrument should initiate a transformative shift towards real-time management. At the local level the instrument will contribute to initiate two new degree programs, creating collaborative ties with other institutions, and serve as an outreach hub that links regional high schools and museums.
