Fire Emissions Network Sept. 4, 2002 A white paper for the development of a NSF Digital Government Program proposal Stefan Falke Washington University in St. Louis

Background The NSF and EPA hosted a working group meeting in July 2002 with the objective of initiating cross-disciplinary discussion of the role emerging information technologies can play in improving access to and the usability of air pollution emissions information. Meeting participants were asked to identify potential projects that could begin building the NEISGEI framework. A networked forest fire emissions infrastructure was identified as a needed project that requires the type of IT research funded by the NSF Dig. Gov. Program More information about the meeting can be found at:

NSF Digital Government Program Objectives of the Dig. Gov. program include: 1)To support multi-disciplinary and multi-sector partnerships in information technologies and government agencies in order to foster collaboration among societal sectors 2)Academic/government collaborations that contribute to government strategic planning for information technologies and services while providing interesting and unique research problems and data sets for the academic research community.

NSF Dig. Gov. Proposal Our proposal falls under the NSF defined class 1: Technically based computer and information science research (IT) on emergent and novel technologies. These proposals will demonstrate a strong partnership between academic researchers and one or more government agencies in the design and execution of the research. Research in this area is expected to inform government strategic planning, but is not expected to result in technologies that can be deployed immediately in production environments. Agencies are encouraged to partner through sharing of facilities, data, and personnel, as well as either direct funding for researchers or joint funding with the National Science Foundation, for support of non- government project costs. Proposal submission deadline is November 7, 2002 Projects can be funded up to 3 years & up to $500k per year

How Fire Emissions fit within Dig. Gov. Data and estimation tools are distributed among federal, state, regional agencies and there is a desire to coordinate efforts among agencies to improve forest fire management The data and tools are heterogeneous across the country (different databases types, data formats, emission estimation methods, and tools) IT research can spur the development of a web-based system of interoperable data and tools that keep the data distributed and in the control of their providers but makes them accessible to the fire emissions community at large for deriving integrated emissions estimates

Objectives of Proposed Project 1.Build web-based network for sharing and integrating fire emission related data, methods, and tools 2.Provide web-based resources for obtaining fire emissions estimates for the United States The proposed project has two general objectives: Field Data Distributed Data & Tools Data & Tools Users Imagery Models Data Analysis Data & Tool Catalogs Data Viewers Data Integration Tools Emissions Estimation Tools

IT Research Areas for Fire Emissions Network metadata standards for describing fire emissions data data wrappers that allow seamless integration of distributed data web-based tools for data viewing/browsing/exploring tool “wrappers” that allow seamless integration and interoperation among available fire emissions estimation tools new interoperable tools (modeling & data analysis) for estimating forest fire emissions and for comparing estimates To achieve the project’s objectives, IT research is needed to develop:

Metadata, Wrappers & Catalogs XML technologies will be employed in all the above. These components enable data access and integration Metadata standards need to be developed to provide the data descriptions for web-based searching and access. The standards can range from simplistic (lat, lon, value) to detailed descriptions of the data’s collection and origin. In the cases where detailed metadata is not available, data wrappers need to be developed as customized translators that make the data available to web-based queries and access Data are registered in catalogs that provide searching capabilities

Data Viewers/Browsers/Explorers In the past, research has focused on geographic views (maps) of the data. This project will extend available data views to include time series and other graphical charts. Web-based tools for viewing, browsing, and exploring the forest fire emissions input data as well as the emissions estimates data will be developed. The viewing tools will allow for data integration as multiple data sets can be viewed simultaneously and functionality will be provided for comparing data sets.

Fire Emissions Estimation Tools Just as the network requires data interoperability, the tools that operate on the data and estimate emissions must also be interoperable. Metadata will describe the tools (their inputs, operations, outputs) Wrappers will be built so that existing web-based estimation tools can operate within the network environment Newly developed tools that adhere to interoperability specifications will simply “plug-in” to the emissions network environment

Data Analysis & Modeling Tools Most research in estimating forest fire emissions has focused on modeling fires. Increasing availability of satellite imagery and spatially and temporally dense surface observations provide the ability to estimate emissions through data analysis methods The fire emissions web portal will support existing fire emissions estimation tools as well as new emissions estimation techniques and tools

Existing and Novel Components While most IT components involved in the creation of the Fire Emissions Network are state-of-the-art, NSF only provides funding for novel research In our project, the data integration and establishment of the underlying network infrastructure involves previously researched components. We plan to utilize as much existing technology as possible to build the foundation of the network. This part of the project will require resources from agencies other than NSF. The distinction between existing IT and novel research is not clear and will be discussed with NSF during the development of this proposal.

Project Participants Multiple government agency partners are needed to provide fire emissions data, metadata, tools, and expertise as well as funding for the underlying fire emissions network infrastructure Multiple academic IT research collaborators are needed to develop the network infrastructure including integrated data access tools, data viewers, and emissions estimation tools.

Link to International Scope While the focus of this project is on fire emissions within the United States, the web-based network, estimation tools, and many of the datasets involved can be easily transferred and applied to estimating global fire emissions. The network and tools will be developed with a global scope in mind so that future work can easily implement the technology and methods developed in this project.

A Virtual Community A website has been created to help build a virtual community interested in forest fire emissions and to help with the process of creating the NSF Digital Government proposal (defining objectives, identifying challenges, and assigning project tasks) The website allows participants to submit descriptions, web-links to material (papers, websites, etc.) and to discuss issues through forums. To view the website and add your input to the virtual community please go to: