 | |  | | Shown above is an interactive exhibit featured in Water: H2O=Life at the American Museum of Natural History. |
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Water, earth's life giving substance, can be found in solid, liquid, and gaseous phases on earth's surface. Now, museum goers can touch and feel all three phases with this hands-on, water-cycle sculpture (left). Learn how NCED collaborated with the Science Museum of Minnesota in their effort to create the traveling exhibit Water: H2O=Life with the American Museum of Natural History.
NCED (the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics) is a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center. We began operation in August, 2002; we're headquartered at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory at the University of Minnesota. Our purpose is to predict the coupled dynamics and evolution of landscapes and their ecosystems, in order to transform management and restoration of the Earth-surface environment. In concert with our integrative research efforts, we strive to bring our methods and results to students, the public, and practitioners in agencies and industry.
CSDMS and NCED Working Together
NCED provides the research—process understanding and initial algorithm development. The Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS), an NSF-funded project, focuses on modeling with an emphasis on large-scale modular numerical modeling. Currently, NCED’s work with CSDMS includes organizing the transfer of models and data from NCED to CSDMS. CSDMS supports a wide range of programming languages, but contributions need some further processing and metadata tagging to be fully CSDMS compatible. Enrica Viparelli, an NCED postdoc, is playing the role of NCED liaison to CSDMS and is coordinating this effort. Viparelli will begin by converting the codes that are part of NCED PI Gary Parker’s e-book and toolbox into the programming platform supported by CSDMS. Then, these versions will be tested against the originals to ensure accuracy. Moreover, other NCED-developed models, such as Ripple, will also be slightly transformed and made CSDMS compatible. In addition to the above, NCED is also involved with CSDMS in several other ways. NCED External Advisory Board member, Rudy Slingerland, is Chair of the CSDMS Steering Committee, NCED Education Director Karen Campbell is the chairperson of the Education and Knowledge Transfer (EKT) Working Group, and several NCEDians are involved with the terrestrial, marine, coastal, and hydrology working groups
MARCH NEWSLETTER HIGHLIGHT
GeoNet Tool Now Available
Today’s high resolution topography data presents new opportunities for geomorphologic research in the area of environmental prediction and hazard assessment. To use this data for such research, NCED scientists created a new computational tool: GeoNet. GeoNet extracts channels and channel networks from high resolution digital elevation data. During the extraction process, GeoNet incorporates nonlinear filtering, for the initial preprocessing of data, and energy minimization principles, for feature extraction. The use of nonlinear filtering, with a variable diffusion coefficient, achieves noise removal (in low gradient areas) and edge enhancement (in high gradient areas, ie, feature boundaries). After this preprocessing, GeoNet extracts channels as geodesics—lines that minimize a cost function, which is based on the fundamental geomorphologic characteristics of channels, such as flow accumulation and curvature. Right now, GeoNet performs only channel extractions. However, by varying the cost function, future versions of GeoNet will allow users to select other geomorphic features of interest, such as landslides, service roads, terraces, etc. GeoNet, another tool for NCED’s toolbox, represents an example of successful, interdisciplinary collaboration among geomorphologists, mathematicians, and image processing experts. To download GeoNet, click here.
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| Left: LIDAR image of Skunk Creek, a 0.54 km2 tributary located just upstream of Elder Creek, part of the South Fork Eel River in Northern California. Right: GeoNet automatically extracted the Skunk Creek river network. This extraction took one minute on a laptop computer. |
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NEWS AND EVENTS
Visitor Program Award Winners Announced
Visitor Program funds are divided between two research areas: general and critical. This year, NCED has awarded the general research area funds to Vivian Leung from the University of Washington. Critical research area of funds have gone to a group of NCED visitors who will collaborate with several NCED researchers. Read more.
National Geographic Features NCED/SAFL Model
The NCED/SAFL Marmot Dam model was featured in "Break it Down: Dam," which aired earlier this month on the National Geographic Channel .
SAFL/NCED Outdoor StreamLab Featured
Video footage of the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL)/NCED Outdoor StreamLab (OSL) has been included in a University of Minnesota Foundation film. View the video, and learn more about the OSL and SAFL (home to NCED).
NCED Videoconference Schedule Correction
All videoconferences will be on Wednesdays from 1 to 2 p.m. (central).
PRRSUM Webstream Available
The Partnership for River Restoration and Science in the Upper Midwest (PRRSUM) meets monthly to discuss important topics in river restoration and river research. To view the PRRSUM forum webstream, you will need to join PRRSUM. Membership in PRRSUM is free.
________________________________________________________________ NCED is funded by the Office of Integrative Activities, National Science Foundation, under agreement Number EAR- 0120914. |
