US EPA Digital Science: An Evolution

Abstract:

The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (US EPA) digital science “enterprise” plays a critical role in US EPA’s efforts to achieve its mission to protect human health and the environment. This enterprise is an evolving cross-disciplinary research and development construct, with social and institutional dimensions. It has an active development community and produces a portfolio of digital science products including decision support tools, data repositories, Web interfaces, and more. Earth sciences and sustainable development organizations from around the world – including US government agencies – have achieved various levels of success in taking advantage of the rapidly-evolving digital age. Efficiency, transparency and ability to innovate are tied to an organization’s digital maturity and related social characteristics. Concepts like participatory web, data and software interoperability, global technology transfer, ontological harmonization, big data, scaling, re-use and open science are no longer “new and emerging.” They have emerged and – in some cases – are tied to US government directives. We assess maturity, describe future scenarios, discuss new initiatives and outline steps for better leveraging the information age to more effectively and efficiently achieve US EPA’s mission.

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the organizations for which they work and/or represent.