Introduction: Population growth, shifting land uses, and climate variability are altering the magnitude
and timing of water fluxes, stores, and availability in the arid Intermountain Western U.S. These
alterations are driven by coupled human-natural system interactions at spatial scales ranging from farm
plots and buildings to entire river basins and temporal scales from seconds to centuries. These pressures
produce interconnected responses in atmospheric, surface, and subsurface processes, threatening the
sustainability of natural water systems supporting fragile ecosystems and the resiliency of constructed
water systems on which tens of millions of people depend. Numerous researchers have investigated the
individual atmospheric, hydrological, geological, environmental, economic, and sociological components
of this complex human-natural water system. However, components are only infrequently integrated to
characterize the overall system sustainability. Furthermore, it is rare for comprehensive evaluation of
integrated system behavior to inform or guide land use or water system planning or management by
individual users, cities, water conservancy districts, or states.
This project, which we call CI-WATER, will allow a consortium of Utah and Wyoming researchers to
acquire and develop hardware and software cyberinfrastructure (CI) to support the development and use
of large-scale, high-resolution computational water resources models to enable comprehensive
examination of integrated system behavior through physically-based, data-driven simulation. Successful
integration requires data, software, hardware, simulation models, tools to visualize and disseminate
results, and outreach to engage stakeholders and impart science into policy, management, and decisions.
The computational requirements of stochastic methods to consider uncertainties, fine spatial and temporal
resolutions to improve accuracy, and representation of dynamic processes that include feedbacks among
system components demand use of state-of-the-art high-performance computing (HPC). We propose a
robust and distributed CI consisting of integrated data services, modeling and visualization tools, and a
comprehensive education and outreach program that will revolutionize how computer models are used to
support water resources research in the Intermountain West and beyond.
Our proposed CI developments leverage and extend the shared expertise in Utah and Wyoming and align
with the focus areas presented in both the current Wyoming Science and Technology plan and the draft
Utah plan.
Project Goal and Objectives: The scientific problem that this project will address is: How are the
quality and availability of water resources sensitive to climate variability, watershed alterations, and
management activities? The CI challenge that we will address is: How can we best structure data and
computer models to address this scientific problem through the use of high-performance and dataintensive
computing by discipline scientists coming to this problem without extensive computational and
algorithmic knowledge and experience? The project thus aims to broaden the application of CI and HPC
techniques into the domain of integrated water resources modeling. To meet these goals, we propose four
primary components:
- Enhance cyberinfrastructure facilities. The demands of the proposed data-intensive modeling require
additional hardware in the form of data systems and compute clusters to support the work proposed and
enhance the research competitiveness of the Consortium states. This CI will include servers and disk
farms connected to the four participating institutions via an ultra-high-speed network. The servers will
host the data services, regional models, and computing clusters used to access and run simulations. It will
also include a new 100+ TeraFLOP class computer system and a complementary data storage system.
- Advance high-resolution multi-physics watershed modeling. We will revolutionize water resources
modeling by integrating new physical process descriptions and linking with existing widely-used codes to
enable long-term simulations with high spatial resolution to answer location-specific questions related to
water availability in the face of growing demands, uncertain future meteorological forcings, and existing
prior-appropriations water rights. The model will include engineered watershed features and water
transfers, enabling water management and economic analyses.
- Promote STEM learning and water science engagement. We will foster scientific and cyber-literacy
and improve educational and research capacity within the Consortium through dissemination and
communication activities reaching four audiences across the STEM learning pipeline: 1) the CI-WATER
partners and other EPSCoR jurisdictions; 2) Utah and Wyoming K-12 students and their teachers; 3)
higher education faculty, students, and water agency professionals; and 4) adult learners. Using water
resource issues as the basis for educational and diversity-building activities, the Consortium will reach all
levels of the STEM pipeline.
Management, Coordination, and Evaluation: We will manage the project in a manner that will result in
cross-disciplinary and cross-jurisdictional scientific integration. We have identified metrics that will be
used throughout the project to evaluate and assess the adoption and effectiveness of our
cyberinfrastructure at enabling cyber-related discovery through the use of high-performance water
resources models. This information will be used by the state committees and EPSCoR offices, an external
evaluator, and an advisory committee to inform project direction following best industry practices.
Comprehensive Diversity Plan: Our project is ideally suited for engaging under-represented groups in
STEM learning and bringing to them the excitement of cyber-related discovery and innovation that is
important for retention. We will hold annual summer workshops for underrepresented students. The
proposed web user interface to our system aids in broad dissemination, draws upon the capabilities in
the Utah and Wyoming university systems, and will be integrated into curricula at the respective
universities to provide a tight coupling between education and research components.
Intellectual Merit: The integrated data-intensive modeling enabled by the proposed CI will lead to better
understanding of coupled natural and human water resources systems and their response and sensitivity to
alterations across space-time scales. Advances in data and modeling systems that enhance HPC usability
and access by non HPC specialists will transform the way hydrologic knowledge is created and provide
broader informatics applicability beyond the field of water resources.
Broader Impacts: This project provides CI that improves access to data and sophisticated models,
combines models and model components from different sources, enables scientists to populate models
with readily accessible data, harnesses high-performance computing resources to perform multi-decadal
simulations over large spatial areas with high space-time resolution, and transforms the way hydrologic
knowledge is created and used in water resource planning and management. The CI enhancements in this
project will be integrated into a robust education program focused on improving cyber-literacy throughout
the region. Outcomes will be disseminated broadly to water users, scientists, planners, managers,
regulators, industries, municipalities, engineers, state and federal agencies, non-profit entities, and the
public. The measure of our success will be a transformational change in how students, researchers,
practitioners, and citizens in our states use data and models to make meaningful predictions regarding
influencing factors, choices, and future availability of ground and surface water. The adjacency of Utah
and Wyoming provide compelling case studies related to water, energy, urban growth, climate, and
ecosystems that will foster natural collaboration at all levels of education and across disciplines. Open
access to the data and models combined with enhanced usability and active outreach will extend
capability to those groups currently underrepresented in water resources.