Chesapeake Community Modeling Program CCMP Newsletter | June 2012 Volume 5, Issue 2 |
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Introduction It's been a busy spring at the Chesapeake Community Modeling Program. We hosted the Chesapeake Modeling Symposium 2012 in late May and held our semi-annual CCMP Steering Committee meeting in Early June. Read about these things and more in the latest edition of our Newsletter! As always, please contact Dave Jasinski if you have any questions or comments. | |||||||
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Contents
1. CCMP News in brief |
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1. CCMP News in Brief Chesapeake Modeling Symposium May 21-22, 2012
The Chesapeake Community Modeling Program hosted yet another successful modeling symposium on May 21 and 22 in Annapolis, MD. We had approximately 150 attendees for the two day event. Plenary sessions were focused on the interaction between modeling, management, and stakeholders while, for the most part, the special sessions were geared towards issues related to models and model development. Some of the highlights of the symposium:
Please check out the Symposium website where the plenary presentations and most of the special session presentations can be viewed. You can also download the Symposium program which contains bios for the plenary speakers and panelists, the complete schedule, and abstracts for all presentations and posters given at the symposium. To date, reaction to the Symposium has been overwhelmingly positive. The CCMP steering committee and the CheMS12 planning committee would like to express it's deepest thanks to all who participated. We have already started making plans for 2014! CheMS12 Panel Discussion "TMDLs, politics, litigation, and conflicting stakeholder interests" On the morning of the second day of the Symposium, a panel discussion was held on the topic “TMDLs, politics, litigation, and conflicting stakeholder interests”. Jon Kramer (SESYNC) moderated the panel whose members included Anne Swanson (CBC), Beth McGee (CBF), Rich Batiuk (EPA), Kim Burgess (Balt. DPW), Arthur Butt (VADEQ), Ken Staver (UMD), Jason Keppler (MDA), Lee Curry (MDE), and Michael Paolisso (UMD). Kramer led off the discussion by asking each panelist to take five minutes to introduce themselves and explain which constituency or stake holders they felt they represented. From Anne Swanson who indicated that she represented the plants and animals that make the Chesapeake their home, to Kim Burgess who spoke for local government, to Ken Staver who has deep understanding of the impacts of regulations on farmers, it appears that a broad spectrum of Chesapeake Stakeholders had a voice on the panel.
All of the panelists seemed to support the idea that the TMDL was a necessary step in protecting the Chesapeake. And there was general consensus that the TMDL process is a incredibly complex and ground breaking effort. While they all agreed that the TMDL would have a positive impact on Bay health, they each had a unique perspective on what the impacts of new regulations would be on various stakeholders. And, while everyone agreed that models play a pivotal role in the process, they each had their own opinions, born of experience, about how models are perceived by various Chesapeake stakeholders. Jon Kramer posed some specific questions to the panelists to help foster discussion about TMDLs, models, and Chesapeake Bay management. These questions and a synopsis of the responses are detailed below. Question 1 – What can we do at the local level to ensure the success of the TMDL? Ken Staver – We need to keep in mind that we’ve moved on from improvements that can be observed (i.e. erosion) to improvements that are best described as trust based (i.e. dissolved nutrients). Question 2 – How do we ensure that the model is credible so it is defensible? (posed to Beth McGee but open to entire panel)
Beth McGee – It is helpful to point out the number of times that the model has been peer reviewed. The STAC (Chesapeake Bay Program Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee) review was very powerful. Question 3 – How do we talk to stakeholders bout model uncertainty? Lee Curry – Lead with what you know before discussing what you don’t know. Jon Kramer then opened the discussion to take questions from the audience. Some of the questions and a summary of answers are below. How do we represent ourselves in court about being 95% certain? Rich Batiuk – It is important that we support all statements with “lots of documentation”. A county representative from Virginia indicated that the BMP numbers used in the model are off by a factor of 9 for some sectors and they cannot use the VAST tool because of this. They want to move forward but cannot. Rich Batiuk – The tools need to be refined to address these kinds of issues. The CCMP would like to thank all of the Panelists and Jon Kramer who did a fantastic job in moderating the session. CCMP Steering Committee meeting
On June 5th, the CCMP Steering Committee held it’s semi-annual meeting at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Marjy Freidrichs was elected to the Steering Committee. Welcome Marjy! Other items discussed included the recent Chesapeake Modeling Symposium 2012, the CSDMS Chesapeake Focus Research Group, and potential ideas for a workshop next summer. CCMP Modeling Catalog The CCMP modeling catalog has been updated to include links to the CSDMS Modeling Tool (CMT) (http://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/CMT_information). Five of the models in the CCMP catalog (ROMS, CBOFS2, ChesROMS, Hydrotrend, and TopoFlow) are available as components in the CMT. The CMT allows you to link the component models together in a GUI on your desktop and have them run on the CSDMS super computer. All you need is a free CSDMS membership to take advantage of this service. 2. Open Source on the March Open Science Publications Peer J, a new “open source” peer reviewed scientific journal was announced on June 12. The journal and its companion publication, Peer J Preprints, are currently limited to Medical and Biological articles. The business model is that researchers pay a one-time fee ranging from $99 - $259 and then they can publish to Peer J for life. Access to Peer J articles is free and open to anyone. Peer J Preprints is a pre-press server allowing authors to collaborate with peers on publications. Authors can set public access to the pre-publication articles ranging from viewing the entire piece to seeing just the title. Check it out at https://peerj.com/. NASA Changes Course on Open Source Cloud Computing As reported in Volume 3 issue 4 of this newsletter, NASA and web hosting service provider Rackspace were collaborating on developing an open source cloud computing solution. NASA has recently announced that they are abandoning the Rackspace solution and migrating to Amazon’s cloud service. By doing this, they hope to save about $1 million dollars a year. New OpenMI Website The OpenMI association, a non-profit devoted to the promotion of the open modeling interface is sporting a new look. Their new website was launched in April and features many enhanced features. Check it out at www.openmi.org/dashboard2 3. Upcoming Meetings 6th International Congress on Environmental Modeling and Software July 1-5, 2012 link National Environmental Monitoring Conference August 6-10, 2012 link | |||||||
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