BATON ROUGE, La. (May 17, 2022) – The Water Institute today announced the start of development on a new model repository that will make numerical models searchable to promote better collaboration and efficiency of model design.
“Protecting and restoring our coast continues to be among my top priorities. The Water Institute, which serves as our state’s Coastal Innovation and Collaboration Hub, will provide better access to models and databases for all researchers contributing to Louisiana's coastal program,” said Governor John Bel Edwards. “This model repository will gather the expertise that is currently disbursed among researchers into a single focal point for collaboration in creating a more sustainable coast.”
Funded through the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), the development of this numerical model repository will help researchers find and build off previous efforts.
“The model repository will allow easy access to past model work and eliminate the need for coastal researchers to start from scratch,” said CPRA Deputy Executive Director Greg Grandy. “The importance of developing the model repository is two-fold. First, it will serve as a centralized location of summaries, descriptions, and project data for those interested in existing models. Second, a standard operating procedure will be developed for current and future modeling efforts to ensure that modeling deliverables are archived by project teams to streamline submissions to the repository.”
In addition, Grandy said there is a hope this work could serve as a template for other large-scale efforts such as the Louisiana Watershed Initiative.
Currently, while reports generated by CPRA models are available on CPRA’s Coastal Information Management System (CIMS), there is no centralized location where the CPRA models used to generate those reports are housed.
“The state funds the development of many models for program and project planning and engineering, but often times the only person who has the model and the necessary files to replicate the work is the one who built it,” said Hugh Roberts, The Water Institute's Chief Operating Officer. “That means, if the state needs a similar study done, the new researcher either must locate the previous models and necessary documentation to use the models or start a new model from scratch. Either could be a potentially very time-consuming activity. The current limited accessibility of models tends to leave out researchers who may not have the contacts to lead them to the person who can provide the original model.”
A model repository will help the research community by giving better access to existing models and materials that can be used to start new projects, reducing redundant model development efforts, saving time on those efforts that are undertaken, and making research more efficient. In addition, the models will allow researchers to check on how certain models arrived at their conclusions and provide more transparency into how conclusions were reached.
“It will allow the release of models across the modeling community whether the person is a consultant, academic, or in the public sector, and let the community build on what has been done previously,” said Zach Cobell of The Water Institute, who is leading the development effort. “Currently, if you don’t know people in the community, it can be hard to find the models that have been used. This tool will make sure everyone has access.”
One of the key concerns is making sure the model repository is developed in a user-friendly manner, which will help in both accessing the information and encouraging researchers to add in their own models when work is completed. To design a user-friendly model repository, The Water Institute will be setting up an advisory committee comprised primarily of members who would likely use the model repository to gain feedback on what features would be most useful.
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