Form:Annualmeeting2020

CSDMS 2020: Linking Ecosphere and Geosphere

May 19 -21^st 2020, Boulder Colorado, USA

Optional: Choose to attend the pre- or post-conference event (see also conference payment, step 3):

• May 18: Pre conference: Software Carpentry Workshop
• May 22: Post conference: GeoClaw

Given the evolving development of the COVID-19 outbreak, CSDMS has decided to cancel the CSDMS2020 – Linking Ecosphere and Geosphere meeting. We do still hope to offer several online opportunities, such as a hands-on virtual workshop on CSDMS Tools, and several hackathons. Please stay tuned for details on these events. The previously scheduled Executive and Steering Committee meetings on Friday May 22 will still take place as scheduled, via video conference.

If you have already registered and paid out of pocket for the meeting, your registration will be refunded. If you have already booked your travel to Boulder, we request that you work with your air carrier to 1) reschedule your flight for a future meeting, 2) cancel your flight if this is not possible or feasible. CSDMS will provide reimbursement for change fees and cancellation fees. Please contact csdms@colorado.edu for additional details and required reimbursement forms.

If you would like to organize a hackathon with CSDMS Integration Facility support, please contact us at csdms@colorado.edu.

Registration

The 2020 in-person meeting has been cancelled!

Introduction

This year, we anticipate 100 to 150 attendees from academic, government and commercial sectors. The meeting will be co-convened with the International Society for Ecological Modeling, and an important aim of the meeting is to explore connections between ecosystems and earth-surface processes such as erosion, sedimentation, soil dynamics, and landscape/seascape evolution.

Topics that we hope to address at the meeting include (but are not necessarily limited to):

• Life on the surface: biosphere-hydrosphere-lithosphere interactions
• Feedbacks between solid earth, fluid earth and biosphere
• Changing paradigms and challenges in linking ecosystem and earth surface research
• Dynamics of the Critical Zone
• Crossing climate threshold

This year's meeting aims to:

1. Identify new frontiers in fundamental process understanding of linkages between the biosphere and geosphere. New algorithms, cyberinfrastructure development and new model couplings appear paramount to explore important process dynamics and linkages.
2. Identify critical missing components in our ability to overcome model and process boundaries.
3. Build researcher-to-researcher connections. Better connect earth surface process modelers with ecological modelers, social scientists and engineers to facilitate interdisciplinary exploration of ecosystem dynamics and the human dimensions in earth surface processes.

Agenda

Click here to view a draft of the agenda.

Keynote Speakers

May 20

Register at: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYudeCqrTIvHNx973AdZeLcxxmOYvXxt9eG

Pamela Sullivan
Oregon State University

Are rate changes in biotic processes altering subsurface hydrologic partitioning in the Anthropocene? The degree to which subsurface architecture – pores space and connectivity—fluctuates and/or evolves is largely ignored in predictions of how Earth’s critical zone can respond to changes in biotic processes (direct and indirect) in the Anthropocene. Specifically, changes in microbial carbon decomposition rates and root growth can influence the generation of macropores, whose porosity accounts for only ~2% of the subsurface but accounts for ~70% of water transmitted to depth. We argue that the community needs to consider that changes in the subsurface structure throttles the partitioning of water, and thus the fluxes of carbon, nutrients, and weathering products. Using empirical data and modeling we explore this connectivity between biotic processes (e.g., root growth, carbon turn over) and subsurface pore structure from the pedon to the continental scale, quantifying the impact of this interaction on stocks and fluxes of water and nutrients. We then examine how over longer time periods, this change in hydrologic partitioning can influence the depth to which reaction fronts propagate into the subsurface and the role in which these changes could influence the trajectory of landscape evolution.

Clinic Leaders

Daniel Buscombe
Marda Science

Part I: Landcover and landform classification using deep neural networks A fatal error occurred in the #info parser function

Daniel Buscombe
Marda Science

Part II: Landcover and landform classification using deep neural networks A fatal error occurred in the #info parser function

Nicole Gasparini
Tulane University

Modeling the Ecosphere using Landlab Landlab is a Python-based toolkit for building, coupling, and exploring two-dimensional numerical models of Earth-surface dynamics. This clinic will first provide a short hands-on introduction to Landlab's features and capabilities. We will highlight examples from several existing models built within the Landlab framework, including: coupling of local ecohydrologic processes, spatial plant interactions, and disturbances (fires and grazing); landscape evolution impacted by plants; overland flow impacted by changing soil properties; and effects of topographic structure on species distribution and evolution. Models will be run with various scenarios for climate change and anthropogenic disturbances, and evolution of state variables and fluxes across the landscape will be explored. We will also show the use of gridded climate data products to drive Landlab simulations. Participants are encouraged to install Landlab on their computers prior to the clinic. Installation instructions can be found at: http://landlab.github.io (select "Install" from the menu bar at the top of the page).

Anne Gold
CIRES Education and Outreach

Building and Maintaining a Diverse and Inclusive Research Team In this clinic, we will talk about diversity in a way that makes it approachable and actionable. We advocate that actions in support of diversity can happen at all career levels, so everyone who is interested can partake.</br>We will discuss concrete strategies and opportunities to help you bring a diverse research group together. Creating a diverse group can be through reaching out to undergraduate minority students to engage in undergraduate research experiences. This can be done ground-up, i.e. by graduate students in a mentoring role as productively as a faculty in a hiring role. We are all supervisors and mentors in our own ways.</br>We will highlight a number of approaches to engage with underrepresented minority students when recruiting new graduate students, and suggest some concrete adjustments of your recruitment processes to be as inclusive as possible. </br>But being proactive does not stop after recruitment. The clinic will have dedicated discussion time to engage in role play, and provide stories about situations in which you can be an ally. We will identify some pitfalls, ways to reclaim, and provide ideas for more inclusive meetings and mentoring.</br>Lastly, together we can work on creating an overview of current programs that focus on diversity and inclusion, to apply for funding to take action.

Eric Hutton
CSDMS IF

Part I: Exploring Surface Processes using CSDMS Tools: How to Build Coupled Models Predicting long-term Earth surface change, the impacts of short-term natural hazards and biosphere/geosphere dynamics requires computational models. Many existing numerical models quantitatively describe sediment transport processes, predicting terrestrial and coastal change at a great variety of scales. However, these models often address a single process or component of the earth surface system. </br></br>The Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System is an NSF-funded initiative that supports the open software efforts of the surface processes community. CSDMS distributes >200 models and tools, and provides cyberinfrastructure to simulate lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, or cryosphere dynamics. Many of the most exciting problems in these fields arise at the interfaces of different environments and through complex interactions of processes.</br></br>This workshop presents recent cyberinfrastructure tools for hypothesis-driven modeling— the Python Modeling Tool (PyMT) and LandLab. PyMT allows users to interactively run and couple numerical models contributed by the community. There are already tools for coastal & permafrost modeling, stratigraphic and subsidence modeling, and terrestrial landscape evolution modeling (including hillslope, overflow, landslide processes, and a suite of erosion processes with vegetation interactions), and these are easy to run and further develop in a Python environment. </br></br>This 2-part tutorial aims to provide a short overview of the PyMT and Landlab, a demonstration of running a coupled model, and hands-on exercises using Jupyter notebooks in small groups of attendees. The organizers will facilitate break-out groups for discussion of pressing research needs and then have a plenary discussion with reports of each of the breakouts on future frontier applications of coupled landscape/bioscape process modeling.</br></br>Materials for this clinic can be found at: https://github.com/csdms/csdms-2020

Eric Hutton
CSDMS IF

Part II: Exploring Surface Processes using CSDMS Tools: How to Build Coupled Models Predicting long-term Earth surface change, the impacts of short-term natural hazards and biosphere/geosphere dynamics requires computational models. Many existing numerical models quantitatively describe sediment transport processes, predicting terrestrial and coastal change at a great variety of scales. However, these models often address a single process or component of the earth surface system. </br></br>The Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System is an NSF-funded initiative that supports the open software efforts of the surface processes community. CSDMS distributes >200 models and tools, and provides cyberinfrastructure to simulate lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, or cryosphere dynamics. Many of the most exciting problems in these fields arise at the interfaces of different environments and through complex interactions of processes.</br></br>This workshop presents recent cyberinfrastructure tools for hypothesis-driven modeling— the Python Modeling Tool (PyMT) and LandLab. PyMT allows users to interactively run and couple numerical models contributed by the community. There are already tools for coastal & permafrost modeling, stratigraphic and subsidence modeling, and terrestrial landscape evolution modeling (including hillslope, overflow, landslide processes, and a suite of erosion processes with vegetation interactions), and these are easy to run and further develop in a Python environment. </br></br>This 2-part tutorial aims to provide a short overview of the PyMT and Landlab, a demonstration of running a coupled model, and hands-on exercises using Jupyter notebooks in small groups of attendees. The organizers will facilitate break-out groups for discussion of pressing research needs and then have a plenary discussion with reports of each of the breakouts on future frontier applications of coupled landscape/bioscape process modeling.</br></br>Materials for this clinic can be found at: https://github.com/csdms/csdms-2020

Caner Kazanci
University of Georgia

Ecological Network Analysis/EcoNet Ecological Network Analysis (ENA) enables quantitative study of ecosystem models by formulating system-wide organizational properties, such as how much nutrient cycling occurs within the system, or how essential a particular component is to the entire ecosystem function. EcoNet is a free online software for modeling, simulation and analysis of ecosystem network models, and compartmental flow-storage type models in general. It combines dynamic simulation with Ecological Network Analysis. EcoNet does not require an installation, and runs on any platform equipped with a standard browser. While it is designed to be easy to use, it does contain interesting features such as discrete and continuous stochastic solutions methods.

Michael Koontz
Earth Lab, University of Colorado

An introduction to Google Earth Engine— the planetary-scale GIS for everyone Google Earth Engine is a powerful geographic information system (GIS) that brings programmatic access and massively parallel computing to petabytes of publicly-available Earth observation data using Google’s cloud infrastructure. In this live-coding clinic, we’ll introduce some of the foundational concepts of workflows in Earth Engine and lay the groundwork for future self-teaching. Using the JavaScript API, we will practice: raster subsetting, raster reducing in time and space, custom asset (raster and vector) uploads, visualization, mapping functions over collections of rasters or geometries, and basic exporting of derived products.

Richard McDonald
U.S. Geological Survey

An introduction to hydraulic modeling with the Python Modeling Toolkit In this clinic, we will provide a brief introduction to a selection of models (USGS and others), including FaSTMECH (2D/3D hydraulic) and PRMS (watershed hydrology), that have implemented a Basic Model Interface (BMI) and are available in the Python Modeling Toolkit (PyMT). We will interactively explore Jupyter Notebook examples of both stand-alone model operation and, as time permits, loosely coupled integrated modeling applications.</br>Participants will need a laptop with a web browser. Knowledge of Python, Jupyter Notebook, and hydrologic/hydraulic modeling is helpful, but not required.

Julia Moriarty
University of Colorado

Introduction to Cloud Computing for Geoscientists Cloud computing is a powerful tool for both analyzing large datasets and running models. This clinic will provide an introduction to approaches for accessing and using cloud resources for research in the Geosciences. During the hands-on portion of this clinic, participants will learn how to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to open a terminal, analyze model output in python, and run a model, time permitting. This workshop assumes no experience with cloud computing.

Todd M. Swannack
US Army Engineer Research and Development Center

Accelerating multidisciplinary environmental research to application: integrating multiple models through mediated modeling Environmental management decisions increasingly rely on quantitative integrated ecological models to forecast potential outcomes of management actions. These models are becoming increasingly complex through the integration of processes from multiple disciplines (e.g., linking physical process, engineering and ecological models). These integrated modeling suites are viewed by many decision makers as unnecessarily complex black boxes, which can lead to mistrust, misinterpretation and/or misapplication of model results. Numerical models have historically been developed without decision makers and stakeholders involved in model development, which further complicates communication as diverse project teams have differing levels of understanding of models and their uses. For example, explaining to a group of non-modelers how hydrodynamic model output was aggregated at ecologically-relevant scales can be difficult to explain to someone who was not exposed to that modeling decision. The mistrust of models and associated outputs can lead to poor decision-making, increase the risk of ineffective decisions and can lead to litigation over decisions. Improved integrated ecological model development practices are needed to increase transparency, include stakeholders and decision makers throughout the entire modeling process from conceptualization through application. </br></br>This clinic describes a suite of techniques, best practices, and tools for rapid developing applied integrated ecological models in conjunction with technical stakeholder audiences and agency practitioners. First, a workshop approach for applied ecosystem modeling problems is described that cultivates a foundational understanding of integrated ecological models through hands-on, interactive model development. In this workshop environment, interdisciplinary and interagency working groups co-develop models in real-time which demystifies technical issues and educates participants on the modeling process. Second, a Toolkit for interActive Modeling (TAM) is presented as a simple platform for rapidly developing index-based ecological models, which we have found useful for developing a strong modeling foundation for large, multidisciplinary teams involved in environmental decision making. Third, the EcoRest R package is described, which provides a library of functions for computing habitat suitability and decision support via cost-effectiveness and incremental cost analysis. Based on 10 workshops over the last 8 years, these techniques facilitated rapid, transparent development and application of integrated ecological models, informed non-technical stakeholders of the complexity facing decision-makers, created a sense of model ownership by participants, built trust among partners, and ultimately increased “buy-in” of eventual management decisions.

John Swartz
University of Texas, Austin

Exploring surface processes and landscape connectivity through high-resolution topography: integration of high resolution data in numerical modeling High-resolution topographic (HRT) data is becoming more easily accessible and prevalent, and is rapidly advancing our understanding of myriad surface and ecological processes. Landscape connectivity is the framework that describes the routing of fluids, sediments, and solutes across a landscape and is a primary control on geomorphology and ecology. Connectivity is not a static parameter, but rather a continuum that dynamically evolves on a range of temporal and spatial scales, and the observation of which is highly dependent on the available methodology. In this clinic we showcase the utility of HRT for the observation and characterization of landscapes and compare results with those of coarser spatial resolution data-sets. We highlight the potential for integrating HRT observations and parameters such as vegetation density, surface relief, and local slope variability with numerical surface process models. Participants will gain an understanding of the basics of HRT, data availability and basic analysis, and the use of HRT parameters in modeling.

Chris Vernon
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

GCAM and Demeter: A global, integrated human-Earth systems perspective to modeling land projections Researchers and decision makers are increasingly interested in understanding the many ways in which human and Earth systems interact with one another, at scales from local (e.g., a city) to regional to global. For example, how might changes in population, income, or technology cost alter crop production, energy demand, or water withdrawals? How do changes in one region's demand for energy affect energy, water, and land in other regions? This session will focus on two models – GCAM and Demeter – that provide the capability to address these types of questions.<br><br>GCAM is an open-source, global, market equilibrium model that represents the linkages between energy, water, land, climate, and economic systems (Calvin et al. 2019). A strength of GCAM is that it runs fast and can be used to explore, and quantify the uncertainty in, a large number of alternate future scenarios while accounting for multisector, human-Earth system dynamics. One of GCAM’s many outputs is projected land cover/use by subregion. Subregional projections provide context and can be used to understand regional land dynamics; however, Earth System Models (ESMs) generally require gridded representations of land at finer scales. Demeter, a land use and land cover disaggregation model, was created to provide this service (Vernon et al. 2018). Demeter directly ingests land projections from GCAM and creates gridded products that match the desired resolution and land class requirements of the user.<br><br>This clinic will introduce both GCAM and Demeter at a high-level. We will also provide a hands-on walk through for a reference case so attendees can become familiar with setting-up and running these two models. Our goal will be for attendees to leave the clinic with an understanding of 1) the value of capturing a global perspective when informing subregional and local analysis, 2) possibilities to conduct scenario exploration experiments that capture multisector/scale dynamics, 3) a hands-on experience with GCAM and Demeter, and 4) key model assumption drivers and simulated model results available.

Kim de Mutsert
George Mason University

Introduction to Ecopath with Ecosim This clinic will offer you an introduction to developing food web models using Ecopath with Ecosim software. Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) is an ecological modeling software suite for personal computers that has been built and extended on for over thirty-five years. EwE is the first ecosystem level simulation model to be widely and freely accessible. EwE is the most applied tool for modeling marine and aquatic ecosystems globally, with over 400 models published to date, making EwE an important modeling approach to explore ecosystem related questions in marine science. In addition, Ecopath software was recognized as one of NOAA’s top ten scientific breakthroughs in the last 200 years. In this clinic, we will start with a brief introduction, then download the freeware and start setting up some simple models which we will use in example exercises. Note: the software works in a Windows environment; Mac computers can be used if they are set up with Parallels Desktop or a similar application to run programs in a Windows environment on a Mac.

Interested in providing a clinic during a next annual meeting? Contact CSDMS@Colorado.EDU.

CSDMS meeting support

Within its budget, CSDMS intends to partially support member applicants to attend the annual meeting. Towards this goal, we encourage members to fully or partially cover their expenses if capable. We additionally thank those in the industry and agency fields for understanding that 1) we cannot compensate federal agency participants since our own funding is from NSF, and 2) we request that our industrial/ corporate participants cover their own costs thereby allowing more academic participants to attend.

NOTICE: The maximum number of participants that can be supported for lodging was reached on February 28th, 2020. Feel free to register for the meeting but realize that you are responsible for supporting your own lodging. CSDMS has negotiated a preferred rate for attendees still needing lodging at the Millennium Harvest House Hotel. You can view and book rooms through this link: Millennium Preferred Meeting Rates. CSDMS is able to provide the following meeting support:

• For up to 75 participants lodging will be provided at the designated meeting hotel (for the evenings of May 19th, 20th and 21st, shared rooms at 100% of cost and single rooms at 50% of cost, on a first come, first served basis).
• Breakfast and lunch each day of the meeting and one dinner, shuttle service between the Boulder Marriott/Residence Inn/Millennium Harvest House Hotel and meeting venue will be provided for all registrants.
• Lodging support is available for registrations received through April 1, 2020 or until 75 reservations have been received. After this, lodging reservations and costs will be the responsibility of the participant.

Scholarship recipients, Keynote presenters, Clinic leaders and Awardees - please refer to your invitation letter for additional support details.

Important for foreign travelers: If you need a visa to travel to USA, select a business visa. Please email CSDMS@Colorado.EDU as soon as possible if you need an invitation letter along with your passport number, affiliation and entry/exit dates and indicate any specific wording if required. We will need to copy the entry stamp in your passport sometime during the meeting as proof that you were here on business as required by US tax laws.

Travel, Lodging and Conference Center Information

Meeting venue: SEEC at the University of Colorado's East Campus in Boulder.
Hotel: The CSDMS supported hotel block for the evenings of May 18th, 19th and 20th is arranged for the Boulder Marriott. Please indicate your lodging needs on the registration payment site. CSDMS will make your reservation for you if you are in the supported hotel block.
Transportation: You can book transportation between DIA and Boulder here: Green Ride Boulder. And information on how to find Green Ride Boulder at DIA.

A bus between the designated Hotel (Boulder Marriott) and the meeting venue will be provided each day (the shuttle is not able to stop at other hotels). Please note that the parking adjacent to the SEEC building requires payment for non-permit holders. You will need to park in the limited designated areas and provide payment in the adjacent kiosks. Because parking is limited, we encourage all who are able to use the shuttle bus provided, bikes or alternative public transportation.

Pre-post conference events

The following applies to the of the pre- and post conference events: Software Carpentry workshop, and GeoClaw workshop:

• Registration is open until April 1^st (or until program fills) and is handled through the 2020 meeting site.
  
• Each is capped at 30 participants (all first paid first serve), and it has a $30 registration fee.
• Participant will be responsible for cost / organization of their extra day of hotel accommodation and dinner. Costs will not be reimbursed.
• We will cover coffee, continental breakfast and lunch during each of the events.
• Shuttle service between the Boulder Marriott and SEEC is not provided for pre and post conference events.

Pre-annual meeting: Software Carpentry workshop

CSDMS will host a one-day pre-conference Software Carpentry workshop on Monday, May 18, 2020. The goal of the workshop is to teach basic programming skills that will be useful for scientific research and model development. This is an intensive, hands-on workshop, during which certified instructors will cover basic elements of:

• the Unix bash shell,
• Python programming, and
• Github for version control.

The instructor, Mark Piper, is an earth scientist, so lessons and examples will be targeted toward relevant problems in your field. The workshop intentionally precedes the CSDMS Annual Meeting so that the skills you develop can be used in the clinics during the meeting.

Post-annual meeting: The GeoClaw Software for Tsunamis, Storm Surge, and Overland Flooding

This one-day pre-conference workshop provided by Professor Randall LeVeque, University of Washington, on Friday, May 22^nd, 2020 will cover GeoClaw. GeoClaw (http://www.geoclaw.org), part of the open source software package Clawpack, has been extensively used for modeling tsunamis, storm surge, and overland flooding from dam breaks or glacial outburst floods. Adaptive mesh refinement allows tracking waves across the ocean, or water advancing down a valley, and also zooming in with much higher resolution in particular regions of interest. This workshop will consist of an overview of some of the capabilities and basic usage, followed by time to explore some sample problems. Several GeoClaw developers will be present and current users of GeoClaw are also welcome to come with questions about using more advanced features or to give feedback on present and desired capabilities.

Syvitski Student Modeler Award 2020

Submissions are closed now.

Student Scholarships

Submissions are closed now.

Important dates

• October 24: Registration opens
• January 17: Student Modeler submission deadline
• February 7: Student Modeler notifications
• February 10: Student scholarship submission deadline
• February 28: Student scholarship notifications
• April 1: Early registration deadline (and hotel support if still available – will be on first come, first served basis for 75 participants)
• May 1: Late registration deadline
• May 18: Pre conference workshop
• May 19-21: CSDMS annual meeting
• May 22: Post conference workshop
• May 22: CSDMS Executive and Steering committees meetings (by invitation only)