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What is the CSDMS Project?

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 erosion, transport, and deposition of sediment and solutes in landscapes and their sedimentary basins.

CSDMS:

• Produces protocols for community-generated, continuously evolving, open software
• Distributes software tools and models
• Provides cyber-infrastructure to promote the quantitative modeling of earth surface processes
• Addresses the challenging problems of surface-dynamic systems: self-organization, localization, thresholds, strong linkages, scale invariance, and interwoven biology & geochemistry
• Enables the rapid development and application of linked dynamic models tailored to specific landscape basin evolution (LBE) problems at specific temporal and spatial scales
• Partners with related computational and scientific programs to eliminate duplication of effort and to provide an intellectually stimulating environment
• Supports a strong linkage between what is predicted by CSDMS codes and what is observed, both in nature and in physical experiments
• Supports the imperatives in Earth Science research:

1. discovery, use, and conservation of natural resources;
2. characterization and mitigation of natural hazards;
3. geotechnical support of commercial and infrastructure development;
4. stewardship of the environment; and
5. terrestrial surveillance for global security.

Interested participants are encouraged to join one of our disciplinary or integrative Working Groups.

Major funding for CSDMS comes from a cooperative agreement with the | National Science Foundation.