Improving Data Discovery, Access, and Analysis to More Than Three Decades of Oceanographic and Geomorphologic Observations
Michael Forte1, Tyler Hesser2, Kelly Knee3, Irven Ingram4, Kent K Hathaway1, Katherine L Brodie1, Nick Spore1, Andy Bird3, Robert Fratantonio3, Rose Dopsovic4, Andrew Keith4 and Kenneth Gadomski4, (1)U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, Duck, NC, United States, (2)Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, Vicksburg, MS, United States, (3)RPS/ASA, South Kingstown, RI, United States, (4)US Army Corps of Engineers Mobile District, Mobile, AL, United States
Abstract:
The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (USACE ERDC) Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) Coastal Observations and Analysis Branch (COAB) Measurements Program has a 35-year record of coastal observations. These datasets include oceanographic point source measurements, Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS bathymetry surveys, and remote sensing data from both the Field Research Facility (FRF) in Duck, NC and from other project and experiment sites around the nation. The data has been used to support a variety of USACE mission areas, including coastal wave model development, beach and bar response, coastal project design, coastal storm surge, and other coastal hazard investigations. Furthermore these data have been widely used by a number of federal and state agencies, academic institutions, and private industries in hundreds of scientific and engineering investigations, publications, conference presentations and model advancement studies. A limiting factor to the use of FRF data has been rapid, reliable access and publicly available metadata for each data type. The addition of web tools, accessible data files, and well-documented metadata will open the door to much future collaboration. With the help of industry partner RPS ASA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mobile District Spatial Data Branch, a Data Integration Framework (DIF) was developed. The DIF represents a combination of processes, standards, people, and tools used to transform disconnected enterprise data into useful, easily accessible information for analysis and reporting. A front-end data portal connects the user to the framework that integrates both oceanographic observation and geomorphology measurements using a combination of ESRI and open-source technology while providing a seamless data discovery, access, and analysis experience to the user. The user interface was built with ESRI’s JavaScript API and all project metadata is managed using Geoportal. The geomorphology data is made available through ArcGIS Server, while the oceanographic data sets have been formatted to netCDF4 and made available through a THREDDS server. Additional web tools run alongside the THREDDS server to provide rapid statistical calculations and plotting, allowing for user defined data access and visualization.
