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What is CSDMS?
The Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS) deals with the Earth's surface - the ever-changing, dynamic interface between lithosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and atmosphere. We are a diverse community of experts promoting the modeling of earth surface processes by developing, supporting, and disseminating integrated software modules that predict the movement of fluids, and the flux (production, erosion, transport, and deposition) of sediment and solutes in landscapes and their sedimentary basins.
History The CSDMS Project is an NSF-funded, international effort to develop a suite of modular numerical models able to simulate the evolution of landscapes and sedimentary basins, on time scales ranging from individual events to many millions of years. CSDMS is an acronym for Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System. Ideas behind the CSDMS concept were discussed by participants of an international workshop, Numerical Experiments in Stratigraphy (University of Kansas, May 15-17, 1996), with formal presentation of these findings at the third annual conference of the International Association of Mathematical Geology (Barcelona, 1997: Syvitski, et al, 1997). The formal CSDMS idea, however, took shape at a panel convened by the Geology/Paleontology Program of NSF in March 1999. That panel identified a CSDMS as a high priority NSF research initiative in sedimentary geology, and since then the concept has been widely discussed in the North American sediment-dynamics community. The history behind CSDMS began in the mid-1960s, with a very interesting article (Bonham-Carter and Sutherland, 1967; also see Harbaugh and Bonham-Carter, 1970). Graeme Bonham-Carter coded up sediment transport equations related to a river's discharge into the ocean, to provide us with new insights into the formation of sedimentary deposits. The exercise was completed at a time when application of the Navier-Stokes equation to sediment transport remained in its infancy, and when we fed computer cards into memory-poor, slow-speed mainframes. Ten years later saw the first volume describing the full spectrum of numerical models related to ocean dynamics (Goldberg et al, 1977). The emphasis of these articles was on getting the dynamics correct and this resulted in some papers (e.g. Smith, 1977; Komar, 1977) being conceptually ahead of available field tools and data. Through the next decade, as computers advanced with our ability to develop code, the softrock community applied its maturing understanding of hydraulics and sediment transport to the formation and modification of sedimentary deposits. In 1988, a large representation of this community met in the mountains of Colorado, and the concept of quantitative dynamic stratigraphy (QDS) was born (Cross, 1989). At the meeting, a mechanistic view of QDS was contrasted with the more rapidly maturing rule-based (sometimes known as geometric-based) stratigraphic models (see Syvitski, 1989, for discussion). The need to understand local to regional boundary conditions, either over long periods of simulated time, or for conditions where we have little field data (i.e. extreme event modeling) went on to change the way sedimentologists conducted their field and numerical experiments. Through the next decade, the QDS community and discipline grew and influenced the field of both sedimentology and stratigraphy (Agterberg and Bonham-Carter, 1989; Martinez and Harbaugh, 1993; Franseen et al., 1991; Harff et al., 1998; Harbaugh et al., 1999; Paola, 2000; Syvitski and Bahr, 2001, Syvitski et al.,, 2007). Now we approach a time when these marvelous individual efforts can be multiplied in their effectiveness if better coordinated, and openness is developed between the modelers and field-oriented geoscientists. The earth system surface dynamic models, like the established Community Climate System Model or the Regional Ocean Modeling System, are based on algorithms that mathematically describe the processes and conditions relevant to water, sediment and solute transport, and would incorporate all the important input and boundary conditions that define an environmental system. The CSDMS effort is coordinated and funded by government agencies and industry, to support the development of optimum algorithms, input parameters, feedback loops, and observations at the relevant scales necessary, to better provide an understanding of earth-surface systems. The Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System is being designed to address issues, for example, when the earth was abiotic, hotter or colder, when there was no flocculation, when the moon was closer, or the oceans were more saline. CSDMS provides modeling support to those working on modern environmental applications, future global warming scenarios, natural disaster mitigation efforts, natural hazard efforts, reservoir characterization, oil exploration, and national security. New satellite and geophysical databases will only realize their full potential in collaboration with efforts like the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System. Documents CSDMS Reports Project Management, Engagement, and Sustainability Plan (PMESP) 2023 (June 2023, year 1-2, PDF format) Project Management, Engagement, and Sustainability Plan (PMESP) 2022 (December 2022, year 1, PDF format) Discontinued between 2018-2022 CSDMS final & annual report (2013 - 2017 & 2017-2018 annual, PDF format) CSDMS annual report 2017 (August 2017, PDF format) CSDMS annual report 2016 (July 2016, PDF format) CSDMS annual report 2015 (August 2015, PDF format) CSDMS annual report 2014 (August 2014, PDF format) CSDMS annual report 2013 (August 2013, PDF format) CSDMS final report (2007 - 2012, PDF format) CSDMS semiannual report (March - July 2012, PDF format) CSDMS Annual Report 2011 to NSF (January 2012, PDF format) CSDMS semiannual report (March - July 2011, PDF format) CSDMS Annual Report 2010 to NSF (January 2011, PDF format) CSDMS semiannual report (March - July 2010, PDF format) CSDMS Annual Report 2009 to NSF (January 2010, PDF format) CSDMS semiannual report (February - July 2009, PDF format) CSDMS Annual Report 2008 to NSF (January 2009, PDF format) CSDMS Semi-Annual Report (February - August 2008, PDF format) CSDMS Annual Report 2007 to NSF (February 2008, PDF format) CSDMS press release (April 2007, PDF format) CSDMS semiannual report (November 2007, PDF format) Contact us CSDMS Contact Information Phone: 303-735-5482 Fax: 303-735-8180 Email (General): CSDMS@colorado.edu Email (web support): CSDMSweb@colorado.edu Email (HPCC support): CSDMSsupport@colorado.edu Physical address Mailing address CSDMS Integration Facility CSDMS/James Syvitski 4001 Discovery Drive University of Colorado University of Colorado UCB 450 Boulder, CO 80303 Boulder, CO 80309 USA More about directions to the CSDMS Integration Facility Moved or found another job? Let us know! Please fill out this form and we will update your information. Contact information for CSDMS Integration Facility personnel can be found on our staff page. CSDMS would like to acknowledge INSTAAR, the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, for providing the physical space for the CSDMS Integration Facility. Local Links: University of Colorado Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR)

What can CSDMS do for me?
Becoming a member of CSDMS and actively participating in community activities provides benefits for a variety of member types. We are a community of earth surface process modelers; CSDMS provides open-access to numerical models, maintains data for modelers and educational resources on earth science modeling for teachers, provides computing resources for members, offers help in advanced model coupling, and is a platform of discussion for earth science research. We realize you may fit different categories, we all wear different hats at times. Common trait is that you will be part of a family of experts sharing research to advance quantitative earth surface process modeling.
Students Are you interested in using surface process models for your science problems or classes? To explore sediment transport and morphodynamic problems either in the terrestrial, the coastal or the marine domain? You will find numerical models of other scientists documented, and made available as open-source codes in the model repository. You may take advantage of CSDMS integration staff to ask modeling questions. They are there to help you out! You may submit your modeling research for the Student Modeling Award 2012. CSDMS recognizes excellence in modeling and invites awardees to Boulder for a visit! How to submit your research If your model takes a long time to run on your own computer, you may want to sign up to securely access the CSDMS High Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC) and run your model remotely. Are you interested to run or couple models? The CSDMS Web Modeling Tool (WMT) allows you to quickly build model runs and visualize the results, without needing to be an expert in code development. See here for how you can use the WMT. Being a member of the CSDMS working groups allows you to connect with other members to learn more about knowledge gaps and opportunities for proposal writing. You will meet experts in the field of modeling and other students working on similar questions during the annual meetings. So, find out more about the Working groups. CSDMS repositories allow you to make your models, educational resources and data widely available to the science community and general public. Are you a Teaching Assistant? Find resources for quantitative modeling in the EKT repository Looking for a job? CSDMS posts earth surface modeling jobs here. Model Users Are you a researcher or student interested in using surface process models for scientific problems? To explore sediment transport and morphodynamic problems either in the terrestrial, the coastal or the marine domain? You will find numerical models of other scientists documented, and made available as open-source codes in the model repository. You may take advantage of CSDMS integration staff to ask modeling questions. They are there to help you out! If your model takes a long time to run on your own computer, you may want to sign up to securely access the CSDMS High Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC) and run your model remotely. Are you interested to run or couple models? The CSDMS Web Modeling Tool (WMT) allows you to quickly build model runs and visualize the results, without needing to be an expert in code development. See here for how you can use the WMT. Being a member of the CSDMS working groups allows you to connect with other members to learn more about knowledge gaps and opportunities for proposal writing. It may bring more competitive funding opportunities or better integrated proposals. So, find out more about the Working groups. CSDMS repositories allow you to make your models, educational resources and data widely available to the science community and general public. You can work with CSDMS while writing your proposal and comply to NSF broader impact and data management requirements more efficiently. CSDMS writes letters of support! Model Developers Are you a researcher or student interested in developing new numerical surface process models for scientific problems? You will have all the benefits of any model user, but in addition there are services specifically for model developers…. You can make your numerical models easily available to other scientists and students by contributing your source code to the CSDMS model repository. It is an efficient way to gain academic and public recognition for code development. Your contribution may be a way to increase your user base; more users generally will help to make the code more robust. There are already 378 models in the model repository. So, contribute your source code. CSDMS can maintain your code in GitHub, this is a software management tool to make version control with different developers more manageable. Learn more about GitHub here. You may take advantage of the CSDMS integration staff to ask model development questions. Are you interested to run or couple models? The CSDMS Web Modeling tool (WMT) allows you to quickly build model runs and visualize the results in the powerful visualization package VisIT. Do you want to make your model a component that can be easily coupled to other models, CSDMS provides tutorials and examples on how to develop your model into a component. If your model takes a long time to run on your own computer, you may want to sign up to access the CSDMS High Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC). Want to bring your code up to the next level? Learn more about how to run your code in parallel processing mode. Being a member of the CSDMS working groups allows you to connect with other members to learn more about knowledge gaps and opportunities for proposal writing. Competitive funding opportunities - better integrated proposals. Connect with other model developers for proposal opportunities. Lear more about the various working groups. CSDMS repositories allow you to make your models, educational resources and data widely available to the science community and general public. You can work with CSDMS while writing your proposal and comply to NSF broader impact and data management requirements more efficiently. CSDMS writes letters of support! Field Researchers Are you an earth science researcher or student who collects and analyzes field data or experimental data and want to compare it with numerical model output? You may want to explore the CSDMS Model Repository to learn which models are applicable to your project. You will find numerical models of other scientists documented, and made available as open-source codes in the model repository. Connect with model developers through the working groups, and with the CSDMS Integration Facility Staff to properly configure your model runs. Find out more about the working groups. Use the CSDMS Web Modeling Tool (WMT) to quickly build model runs and visualize the results, without needing to be an expert in code development. See here for how you can use the WMT. Connect with other members to learn more about knowledge gaps and opportunities for proposal writing, competitive funding opportunities - better integrated proposals. Learn more about the working groups. You may be interested to contribute datasets that are appropriate to be test-data for numerical models? CSDMS maintains a data repository and the different working groups have a task of vetting CSDMS models with data, which may include model inter-comparisons.The data repository allows you to make your results more widely available to the science modeling community and general public. You can work with CSDMS while writing your proposal and comply to NSF data management requirements more efficiently. CSDMS writes letters of support! Browse the data repository or contribute data. Educators Are you an educator interested in using numerical models in class? Are you looking for material to use teaching about earth surface processes, hydrology and sediment transport? Do you want your students to be more familiar with handling quantitative data and mathematical analysis? Learn about our survey of quantitative earth surface process courses that are being taught, and contribute your own ideas about teaching modeling. More about the survey is posted here. You can use our growing educational repository. It features lectures, classroom labs, modeling textbooks, and documented model simulations. All are focused on (quantitative) learning about earth surface processes. There is a special section with earth surface process movies, you may have your own movie that you want to share? Contribute it! Your can contribute your teaching resources to our repository and gain recognition for developing educational resources. Or work with the CSDMS integration staff to develop new educational products targeted for your needs. Contact the CSDMS EKT specialist, irina Overeem irina.overeem@colorado.edu. You may want to use the CSDMS Web Modeling Tool (WMT) in your classroom to easily couple models and run jobs on the CSDMS High Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC). There are a number of labs that have been developed already using the WMT Tool. See the notes for the labs that are downloadable. Being a member of the CSDMS EKT working group allows you to connect with other members to learn more about knowledge gaps and opportunities for proposal writing. Competitive funding opportunities - better integrated proposals. Connect with other model developers for proposal opportunities. Learn more about the different working groups. Planners Are you a planner or a policy-maker interested in modeling to support your efforts? CSDMS is a community of experts that promotes the understanding of earth-surface processes through numerical simulation experiments. The experiments employ an open-source library of community-generated, continuously evolving software. CSDMS is partnered with related scientific programs in order to provide a strong linkage between predictions and observations. Connect with model developers through the working groups, and with the CSDMS Integration Facility Staff to find out about their model simulations. You may even want to explore the CSDMS Model Repository to learn which models are applicable to your applied research project. You will find numerical models of other scientists documented, and made available as open-source codes in the model repository. Use the CSDMS Web Modeling Tool (WMT) to quickly build model runs and visualize the results, without needing to be an expert in code development. See here for how you can use the WMT. Connect with other members to learn more about the current simulations and knowledge gaps. Encourage model developers to make models applicable to applied modeling questions. Learn more about the working groups. Industry Are you working on applied stratigraphic, fluid flow and reservoir modeling problems? CSDMS members work on applied sedimentary geological problems and develop models for industry. You may want to explore the CSDMS model repository to learn which models are applicable to your applied research project. You will find numerical models of other scientists documented, and made available as open-source codes in the model repository. Connect with model developers through the working groups, and with the CSDMS Integration Facility staff to properly configure your model runs. Find out more about the working groups. Use the CSDMS Web Modeling Tool (WMT) to quickly build model runs and visualize the results, without needing to be an expert in code development. See here for how you can use the WMT. Connect with other members to learn more about knowledge gaps and opportunities for proposal writing. Encourage model developers to make models applicable to applied modeling questions. Find out more about the working groups. The CSDMS Industry Consortium has as its primary goal to engage industry stakeholders in CSDMS research. Consortium members join with the CSDMS community to address key issues in the development and use of the models and tools produced by the CSDMS initiative. Learn more about the CSDMS Industry Consortium.

What are the different CSDMS groups?
CSDMS currently has a total of 8 groups, which includes 5 Working Groups, and 3 Focus Research Groups. The groups meet once per year, coordinating much of their ongoing activities through email and associated to some of the important disciplinary meetings (for example AGU). Chairs are appointed on a 3 to 5 year rotating basis, vetted through the Steering Committee. Go to organization/groups to find out more about the tasks, or to join one or more CSDMS Group(s).
Working Groups → Terrestrial The Terrestrial Working Group (currently 1229 members) deals with erosion, sediment and solute transport, and deposition on land. The processes concerned are wide ranging, from the sculpting of glacial landscapes to the formation of soil and the transport of erosional materials to the coastline. The Group's working goals include: Evaluate present knowledge of processes in terrestrial environments (mountains, plains, deserts, jungles, etc., as well as human impacts in these settings) and identify the numerical models presently in use. Identify gaps in knowledge and areas where model development is needed. Such gaps include processes about which very little is known -- such as the dynamics of bedrock landscapes and the evolution of grain size populations -- and processes that are partly understood but for which numerical codes are under-developed. Define and address interesting and relevant proof-of-concept questions. These are science questions that use the CSDMS paradigm to improve our understanding of landscape evolution and its links with the atmosphere, lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and cryosphere. Proof-of-concept questions range from decadal to geological in time scale, and from small watersheds to mountain ranges in spatial scale. Work with the community to populate the CSDMS model toolkit with models and software tools of all types. These include large, multi-faceted landscape evolution models as well as simple, semi-analytical representations of a single process, hydrodynamic codes such as open-channel flow in 1D and 2D, tools for digital-terrain data processing, and a great many others -- any software, in fact, that can help the community better understand the dynamics of the earth's changing landscapes. → Coastal The Coastal Working Group (currently 927 members) deals with delta, estuary, bays and lagoons, and nearshore challenges. Its working goals are to: Evaluate present knowledge of processes in coastal environments (nearshore, inner shelf, barrier islands, sandy coastlines, rocky coastlines, estuaries, lagoons and marshes, eolian, deltas)— including the human component of those systems (i.e. direct couplings between human manipulations and landscape evolution in deltas and coastlines)—and identify the numerical models presently in use. Identify gaps in knowledge and areas where model development is needed—both poorly understood phenomena requiring basic research and exploratory modeling, and better understood systems for which model reliability should be improved. Define and address interesting and relevant proof-of-concept questions—questions that require linking together models of different environments, preferably spanning between coastal and terrestrial or marine environments. Work with the community to populate the CSDMS model toolkit with models of all sorts, ranging from analytical and simplified numerical models that can be shared with the scientific community in stand-alone form, to numerical models that can be linked to models of other environments, via CSDMS, to allow new sorts of questions to be addressed. → Marine The Marine Working Group (currently 558 members) deals with shelf, carbonate, slope, and deep marine challenges. → Education and Knowledge Transfer (EKT) CSDMS plans on strong and fully integrated Education and Knowledge Transfer components. CSDMS EKT (currently 420 members) will focus its knowledge transfer efforts on three CSDMS end-user groups: researchers, planners, and educators. CSDMS will target: Researchers with model and visualization tools for the testing of hypotheses in support of data interpretation, and development of field programs. The archiving of benchmark data sets, documented source code, and the ability to download models with user-friendly graphical interfaces are key components of the Center's knowledge transfer objective. Planners with decision-making tools to run scenarios, and relate GIS output to environmental factors and land use while quantifying uncertainties. Educators with pre-packaged models to help illustrate surface processes, tools to build intuition with “what-if”-type model runs, case studies that integrate field data and model simulations, and prepare exploratory exercises for students. The Web-Data Specialist and EKT Specialist will be expected to work closely together and will be carefully selected to have good popular-science writing skills. Our principal Education audiences are university students, professionals, teachers at the secondary school and college levels, and the general public. Resources to support this effort will not become available until the third year of the CSDMS effort, due to NSF budget reductions. CSDMS will jump-start our Education and KT activities by coordinating them closely with the EKT programs at the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED), a funded NSF Science and Technology Center devoted to developing a predictive, quantitative understanding of the processes that shape the Earth's Surface. EKT WG quick links: Members → Cyberinformatics and Numerics The Cyberinformatics and Numerics Working Group (currently 345 members) deals with technical computational aspects of the CSDMS, ensures that the modeling system properly functions and is accessible to users; software protocols are maintained, along with model standardization and visualization; and works with our cyberinformatic partners. Focus Research Groups → Hydrology Welcome to the CSDMS Hydrology Focus Research Group (FRG). The Hydrology FRG is a research group (currently 982 members), that is additionally co-sponsored by CUAHSI, the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. Our goal is to provide input to the CSDMS effort on how to best represent hydrological processes and models within CSDMS. Another role that the Hydrology FRG will play is to facilitate links to other community hydrologic modeling activities, including those led by CUAHSI. → Chesapeake This is the first Geographically-Focused Research Group (GFRG) (currently 143 members) associated with CSDMS. The group is a partnership between CSDMS and the Chesapeake Community Modeling Program (CCMP, http://ches.communitymodeling.org/) currently run by the Chesapeake Research Consortium. CCMP developed as the Chesapeake Bay research community came together to cooperatively build an open source system of watershed and estuary models. Through support from CRC member institutions and the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office, CCMP modelers have committed to developing a modeling framework that will enable free and open access to code specific to the Chesapeake Bay region. As a complementary activity to the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) modeling program, the Chesapeake Community Model Program will strive to develop a comprehensive model consisting of interchangeable individual modules covering all aspects of hydrodynamics, ecosystem dynamics, trophic exchanges, and watershed interactions towards a future linked watershed-estuary model. There are obvious areas of overlap between CSDMS and CCMP, and the CSDMS Chesapeake FRG intends to capitalize on synergies from both programs. We continue to solicit members of the Working Group, and your participation would be welcome. Our first meeting was held at the Chesapeake Bay Program Office, Annapolis, MD, on April 3, 2009, and our second meeting was held at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA, on November 10, 2009. These meetings aimed to get attendees up to speed on the model integration pathway that CSDMS is employing and to solicit guidance in developing short, intermediate and longer term goals for the Chesapeake FRG. If you are interested in learning more about these meetings, please visit the Chesapeake FRG Reports page. If you would like to participate in the discussions and meetings of the CSDMS Chesapeake Focus Research Group, we invite you to join the group. Chesapeake FRG quick links: Members Projects Reports

Join!
Join a CSDMS Working Group and or Focus Research Group. Membership is open to all interested participants. Each member agrees to participate in working group discussions, review activities, group projects, and, whenever possible, working group meetings. Or watch this movie of how to join.