Plain English Summary

The objective of the project is to develop a comprehensive, integrated data management system for the NSF-funded Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) program, called CZOData. The overall goal for CZOData is to support, empower, and broaden the impact of CZO science and maximize the return on investment of the CZO program by transforming capabilities to easily share, integrate, analyze and preserve the wide range of multi-disciplinary data generated within and across CZOs.

This Year 1 Report describes project accomplishments from Oct. 1, 2011 to March 31, 2013, primarily via volunteer efforts by project senior personnel due to delays in receipt of funding.

Abstract

The “Integrated Data Management System for Critical Zone Observatories” (CZOData) Project was funded based on a solicited proposal submitted Aug. 1, 2011 by lead PI Mark W. Williams, (Univ. Colorado at Boulder) and with an originally proposed start date of Oct. 1, 2011 and end date of Nov. 2013.  The award (#1153164) was delayed but finally made with a start date of April 15, 2012.  However, in July 2012, only a few weeks after subcontracts had been issued, PI M.W. Williams stepped down and requested that the project award be transferred to Anthony Aufdenkampe (Stroud Water Research Center).  The effort to transfer the award to a new PI and institution (with a new award #1332257) unfortunately took until March 7, 2013 to be finalized.  This very significant delay in funding (20 months total) is noted because it required substantial alterations in the project timeline and a number of important alterations to the project scope, due to the evolving cyber-infrastructures of our project partners (i.e. CUAHSI and IEDA). 

The Year 1 Project Report detailed accomplishments from Oct. 1, 2011 to March 31, 2013.  Because funding was only awarded 3 weeks before the end of this reporting period, the Year 1 report primarily details volunteer efforts (i.e. unfunded by this project) by project senior personnel, who have been highly committed to project goals. However, without firm funding commitments in place before Mar. 7, 2013, most institutions would not allow the team to engage any technical staff toward product development.  The project team back-dated the start date to Dec. 1, 2012 to allow the invoicing of any expenses incurred in autumn of 2012 (such as the Dec. 2012 workshop). Therefore, the Year 1 report documents both those accomplishments completed on on a volunteer basis between Oct. 1, 2011 and Dec. 1, 2012, and the funded accomplishments from Dec. 1, 2102 to March 31, 2013.

Citation

Anthony Aufdenkampe, Jeff Horsburgh, Kerstin Lehnert, David Lubinski, Emilio Mayorga and Ilya Zaslavski (2013): Year 1 Project Report for EAR-1332257: Integrated Data Management System for Critical Zone Observatories (CZOData). NSF Annual Project Report.