Abstract
Knowledge infrastructure is an intellectual framework for creating, sharing, and distributing knowledge. In this paper, we use knowledge infrastructure to address common barriers to entry into numerical modeling in Earth sciences as demonstrated in three computational narratives: physical process modeling education, replicating published model results, and reusing published models to extend research. We outline six critical functional requirements: 1) workflows designed for new users; 2) community-supported collaborative web platform; 3) distributed data storage; 4) software environment; 5) personalized cloud-based high-performance computing platform; and 6) a standardized open source modeling framework. Our methods meet these functional requirements by providing three interactive computational narratives for hands-on, problem-based research using Landlab on HydroShare. Landlab is an open-source toolkit for building, coupling, and exploring two-dimensional numerical models. HydroShare is an online collaborative environment for the sharing of data and models. We describe the methods we are using to accelerate knowledge development by providing a suite of modular and interoperable process components that allows students, domain experts, collaborators, researchers, and sponsors to learn by exploring shared data and modeling resources. The system is designed to support uses on the continuum from fully-developed modeling applications to prototyping research software tools. Landlab notebooks are available for interactive computing on HydroShare at https://doi.org/10.4211/hs.fdc3a06e6ad842abacfa5b896df73a76 and for further development on Github at https://zenodo.org/badge/latestdoi/187289993.
Highlights
Modeling in Earth sciences began with the use of hand-written mathematical formulas that were developed from observational evidence, conjecture, or hypothesis, and shared through conversation and correspondence
We relied on Juptyer notebooks for sharing the following computational narratives and designed the sequence of commentary text and code blocks to be generally useful to Earth surface modeling research communities
We recommend that the users review introductory concepts of overland flow and hydrographs before using this notebook and develop familiarity with the term’s rainfall intensity and duration, as well as peak discharge, hydrograph time to peak, rising limb and falling limb. our aim is to clearly distinguish the component-based options for designing a storm hydrograph based on the choice of basin, storm intensity, and routing method
Summary
Modeling in Earth sciences began with the use of hand-written mathematical formulas that were developed from observational evidence, conjecture, or hypothesis, and shared through conversation and correspondence. Advances in internet-based cyberinfrastructure research tools and technology, broadly considered as Knowledge Infrastructure (KI), have expanded our capacity for structured collaborations in research (Edwards et al, 2013). These advances often come at the expense of raising the technological bar for entry into numerical modeling. As technology is integrated in the research with greater sophistication, it is increasingly a challenge to keep the fundamental equations that define the driving assumptions in the model structure accessible to software users Using methods such as inclusion of equations and references in online documents, can avoid the ‘black box’
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