Brooke L. Hemming, Ph.D.US EPA/National Center for Environmental Assessment

Stefan Falke, Ph.D.Washington University in St. Louis

Terry Keating, Ph.D.US EPA/Office of Air and Radiation

Brooke L. Hemming, Ph.D.US EPA/National Center for Environmental Assessment

Stefan Falke, Ph.D.Washington University in St. Louis

Terry Keating, Ph.D.US EPA/Office of Air and Radiation

Networked Environmental Information System for Global Emissions Inventories (NEISGEI)

“Applying 21st Century Advances in Information Technology to the Conversion of Environmental Data into Scientific-, Management- and Policy-Relevant Knowledge”

Collaborative Science and Management Networks

CyberinfrastructureNSF’s initiative to apply new IT to building new ways of conducting collaborative research

http://www.cise.nsf.gov/evnt/reports/toc.htm

Earth Observation SummitInternational effort to build comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained Earth observation systems

http://www.earthobservationsummit.gov

EcoinformaticsEPA’s vision for national and international cooperation in data and technology development http

://oaspub.epa.gov/sor/user_conference$.startup

Advances in information science and technology are driving the trend toward distributed networks and virtual communities for science and management.

Integrated Ocean Observing SystemInternational network of ocean related monitoring, assessment, and communication http://www.ocean.us/

Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery Network of high-performance computers and software to gain new insights into weather http://lead.ou.edu/

Virtual ObservatoryNetwork for astronomical data sharing and distributed analysis http://www.us-vo.org/

Emissions Community Collaborative Activities

NIF Data standards Standard format and submission NEI XML schema

Environmental Information Exchange Network Network linking EPA, States, and other partners through the Internet and

standardized data formats

Facility Registry System Standard facility codes and locations

Data Sharing Efforts States, Tribes, Local agencies, RPOs North America

…is both a conceptual framework and implementation effort for the development of a fully integrated, distributed air emissions inventory – and the foundation for an all-media environmental information network

Tie together data at all spatial and temporal scales using emerging distributed database technologies

Provide shared, online tools for processing and analysis Provide for the seamless merging, manipulation and analysis of any web-

based -- and desk-top resident -- air quality-relevant data through the development of emerging Internet-oriented technologies

Make use of existing resources – link and partner with other efforts Build a broad-based air quality user community: scientists, regulators,

policy analysts and the public Create the network and toolkit piece-wise, allowing immediate functionality

and value to the air quality community

Networked Environmental Information System for Global Emissions Inventories

NEISGEI

CAREN: The California Air Resources Network

US EPA

RPOs

AQMDs

Municipalities

TribesStates

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Environmental data sharing among international, national, state and local governments, the public and academic and other non-governmental research organizations is a difficult challenge.

► Barrier: Technological incompatibilities► Barrier: Data format incompatibilities► Barrier: Financial (staff time) limitations

Eduard Hovy, Jose-Luis Ambite, Andrew Philpot USC Information Sciences Institute

Our Solution Strategy (First Step):Automate the integration of heterogeneous databases

Use semi-automated information integration methods to generate translation protocols between related information sources, e.g.AQMD and CARB.

Integrated N. American Emission Inventory Demo

The Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and the US EPA are supporting a project to develop a prototype web tool for demonstrating uniform access to distributed emissions data from North American electricity generating power plants.

Co-investigator: Greg Stella, Alpine Geophysics

Air pollutant emission inventories for the US, Canada, and Mexico are compiled and stored using different methods

► Identify, collect, and review existing sources of electric generating utility emissions and activity databases, and provide a summary of the state-of-science

► Build and demonstrate a relational database and web browser tool to query, retrieve, and explore emissions data from these distributed databases.

Fire, Smoke, and Air Quality Network Pilot

► Access to distributed fire related data► Graphical browsing and display► Online analysis tools

What’s possible with NEISGEI ?

Collaborative Air Quality Management

► Emerging air quality issues require cooperative efforts among multiple jurisdictions► Sharing expertise across borders and agencies maximizes program success and cost effectiveness

NEISGEI will provide a mechanism for collaborative work by providing…

► A common, shared pool of data and tools► A shared analytic tool set designed for interoperability► Simple browsing through catalogs of emissions inventories, measurement data, modeling outputs and analysis tools► An environment in which each participant contributes in their area of expertise and gains benefit from others.► A virtual community gathering point

NEISGEI Community Objectives

Gain new insights by combining skills, data, and tools from multiple participants

Provide data access to a broader user base, including the public

Identify data gaps at multiple spatial and temporal scales

Enable simplified, multi-party, cross-border collaboration

Provide environment for new collaborative analysis

Improve data quality through extended use, verification and versioning control

Build and share reusable components across the network

Ex. Emissions Community Resource of Data & Tools

XML

NEON

GIS

EstimationMethods

RDBMS

GeospatialOne-Stop

TransportModels

EmissionsInventoryCatalog

Users &Projects

Web Tools/Services

NEI

Data Data Catalogs

Activity Data

Spatial Allocation

Comparison of Emissions

Methods

Data Analysis

Model Development

Wrappers

Emissions Factors

Surrogates

See our website for the latest information about the progress of NEISGEI:

» http://www.neisgei.org