Sierra Nevada Research Institute Informatics and Data Visualization Center in Yosemite National Park

University Of California - Merced, Merced CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The project will renovate an old, uninsulated building that is currently used for environmental research at the University of California Merced (UC Merced) Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI) Wawona Field Station in Yosemite National Park. The result of the renovation will be an interdisciplinary, energy-efficient, networked center for computational modeling, eco-informatics, and data visualization. The center will support a variety of ongoing and future, computationally intensive research at the interface of science and natural resource management. Cyberinfrastructure upgrades will include high speed internet connections to the UC Merced campus for remote data storage and processing. Infrastructure improvements will include: weather proofing, roof repair, an upgraded electrical system, and heating and cooling upgrades. The Wawona Field Station (WFS) supports Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI) research and facilitates synergistic links among academic research, science education, natural resource management, and the arts. The WFS provides unique opportunities for research at the interface of science, resource management, and scientific communication. The WFS is a broad-based field station that supports research projects involving traditional field station activities and, more recently, the use of embedded sensor networks for spatially and temporally intensive measurements. However, WFS serves more functions than a traditional field station. Researchers who engage in field activities at WFS also do computationally intense synthesis, analysis, and visualization of remote sensing data, spatially explicit field data, temporally rich sensor network data, and data from other remote data libraries (e.g., genome sequence data). Addressing interdisciplinary environmental questions at landscape scales requires that field data be tightly coupled in real time with data synthesis and visualization to help refine and target subsequent field sampling. The renovated structure will facilitate interdisciplinary cross-scale research and enhance the Sierra Nevada Research Institute?s current activities including change detection in hydrological and ecological systems. The renovated facility will also provide research experiences to members of one of the most diverse student bodies in the University of California system, thus increasing interest in science among traditionally underrepresented student populations.