GIS/IT Support for Landscape Ecological Modeling in South Florida

Project Investigator: Scott Wilson Project Personnel: Steve Hartley, Cindy Thatcher, Dustin Roszell, Gene Nelson, Craig Conzelmann Project Start Date: 2009 End Date: 2010 Recent Funding: (FY09) USGS GE PES Work Plans

The USGS has been requested by the South Florida Interagency Modeling Center (located at SFWMD in West Palm Beach, FL) to assist in integrating ecological models (such as: ATLSS SESI models, HydroSuite model and other ecological models) into the IMC system of models. Currently, the source code for ATLSS SESI models (and related models) resides at the University of Tennessee (UT) and at the IMC, but production runs are only performed at UT. In order to have these models running in a production mode at the IMC, source code must be compiled with a specific versions of the Linux operating system, specific gcc compilers, a specific version of PV-WAVE, and the outputs must be tested and verified with those from UT. To further facilitate production runs of the ATLSS models at the IMC, USGS will be assisting the University of Tennessee in their efforts to train IMC personnel (and others interested) on how to perform successful model runs. In an effort to gain a better understanding of the impacts of hydrology choice, USGS will perform a comparative analysis of the ecological model outputs which are based on varied hydrologic inputs.

USGS will focus efforts on improving integration both within the Department of Interior agencies (USGS, USFWS, NPS) and others such as the SFWMD and the Army Corps of Engineers with hopes of future expansion to other natural resource stake holders. In keeping with JEM’s charge to “Get Ecological Models into the Hands of the Users”, USGS will develop a prototype application which will enable natural resource managers and scientist to parameterize, run, and visualize outputs from various models.

Work Plans

• 2009