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Site Flash 99Peter McCartney, CAP Data Manager ResourcesOne of the most significant changes at CAP is the decision in late spring to separate LTER data management activities from the joint lab shared with the Archaeological Research Institute and establish a new lab for data management and GIS within the Center for Environmental Studies. The changes are more in spirit than in body at this point as we really don't have a new space to house such a lab. Nevertheless, computers are being shuffled around, a new network domain created, and new resources are being bought (the biggest being an HP 1055CM plotter - we're tired of BES having sexier posters than us). This reaffirmation of CAP's emphasis on data management is also reflected in a shift in the data manager and the system administrator positions from 50% to 100% CES. This means an effective increase of one FTE for LTER or LTER-related data activities. Ted Oliver left ASU in Spring to join a private consulting company in Tucson and Steven Rosales was hired as his replacement. Steve has a masters degree in environmental engineering and was employed by a geo-technical consulting firm in Seattle prior to coming to ASU. In addition to managing workstation and server resources, Steve participates in database design, application development, and data archiving and can tell you where every Starbucks in the east valley is located. We expanded our server resources by adding a second dual-pentium server with another 27 gig of raid storage. This machine hosts all our SQL data, Spatial Database Engine (SDE) service, and archived data files, leaving the other server for active user and project files. The new machine was purchased by the state archaeology database project which remains within the CES lab and shares with LTER the use of many of the basic infrastructural GIS themes that we have been loading into SDE. And oh, yeah…just one more little thing…..John Briggs is joining the ASU faculty. Seriously, we look forward to John's contributions to CAP because of his sensitivity to IM issues and the way his research applications of remote sensing and GIS will stimulate the activities of the lab. Activities and ProductsCore catalog databases used for general project management were maintained and expanded. Features were added to the bibliographic database that allow users to make and store selections of references for output as bibliographies. An online, searchable metadata catalog for LTER data was added to the website in the fall and continues to be enhanced. This application is the main search, documentation and delivery system for making LTER data available over the web for both CAP and external use. Although file security is in place for restricted items, we have yet to implement the planned mandatory user registration system which will be used to use to track access and usage for all LTER datasets. An interactive, map oriented web application was created to provide search and display access to the CAP LTER bird survey project . This tool developed the lab's expertise in several core technologies such as web-based mapping that will be reused in many similar applications for LTER projects. Text and graphics from posters from the first CAP LTER poster conference held January 1999 were collected and formatted for web presentation. These will go online soon pending a few late submissions. The Ecology Explorers educational project was launched with a website (http://caplter.asu.edu/explorers) that introduces students to ecology and provides them with instructions and support to carry out field research following protocols based on CAP monitoring projects. Databases and web entry forms were developed for four protocols (arthropods, birds, vegetation, and seeds). With supplemental funding, four legacy collections catalogs for the Biology Department were harvested into an upgraded relational database designed and hosted in the LTER lab. Basic entry and query tools were developed for use by Biology staff; a web query page is in development and will be completed soon. We continued our efforts to compile existing data relevant to CAP research. Data from Maricopa Associated Governments, Maricopa Flood Control District, USGS and ADEQ were acquired and converted to formats and/or projections compatible for use in LTER Research. The initial phase of an historic landuse project was completed producing a series of GIS covers summarizing land use for five discrete points in time, beginning in 1905. Phase II focussing on detailed histories of selected areas was initiated. The CAP site manager (McCartney) and one of the CAP lead PIs (Grimm) served as site reviewers this summer. In addition, McCartney served as panel reviewer for the NSF Postdoctoral Awards competition in Bioinformatics. GrantsWe were again active in grant writing this year. Supplement grants for connectivity and collections curation were submitted and funded. The focus of the connectivity grant was on K-12 connectivity and on wireless data communications. Connectivity for three target schools is being enhanced and roaming resources (laptops, projection monitors, modems) have been purchased. Over the next year, we will be enhancing the ecology explores website and investing in more server resources to support K-12 access to the lab. The collections award will pickup where the last one left off, and enable us to open search access to ASU collections catalogs to the Z39.50 based search protocol currently being developed by KU and SDSC for biological collections data. A proposal to the NSF Biological Databases and Informatics program was submitted in July. This grant (described in more detail in the IM annual report) seeks to expand ASU's infrastructure for manageing biological data by developing a series of tools for aquiring, processing and reporting metadata and then using them to build delivery solutions that interconnect the seach, acquisition and application process associated with using archived data. Another grant effort, this time a collaboration with several Arizona museums and libraries, was submitted to IMLS. This project would expand the bibliographic database format used by CAP LTER to establish a state-wide database covering environmental and cultural research. It would both inventory materials in participating libaries and provide a data resource that could be integrated with other research and educational data products. Finally, McCartney participated as a co-PI on a successful KDI proposal on the use of 3 dimensional visualization in scientific applications. Although the proposed research is archaeological and does not directly involve LTER, the fact that ASU is doing 3D work was of great interest to Mark Schildauer at NCEAS and might open another area of collaboration with that group in the area of complex data visualization models. DirectionsIn addition to the goals set by our grant activities, CAP has some major goals to achieve with respect to its core data management mission. CAP is now almost two years old and we are rapidly approaching the timeline at which some of our first datasets produced with LTER money are due to come on line. Steve and I have begun dealing with the data submission process with some projects, and are striving to define a reasonable protocol for streamlining the process. Web based applications for delivering archived datasets stored in SQL Server will be developed. Another goal is to continue refining the online data catalog application and to set up a procedure for getting metadata for remote sensing data archived by the Mars Explorer project into the LTER data catalog. Finally, we hope to follow the step taken with the bird survey web page and attempt some for sophisticated web and map- based presentations of LTER research. This sort of presentation will become a major part of the schoolyard project. |
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