WP8: Virtual Research Environments and Cross-disciplinary Activities
WP Leader: Antonello Provenzale (CNR – Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse)
The WP8 is a horizontal cross-sectorial WP building on the capacities developed in WP4-WP7 and enhancing the cross-disciplinary approach to environmental problems. In WP8, the data, information and knowledge generated by the RIs in the different subdomains (atmosphere, marine, terrestrial biosphere and geosphere) will be integrated to create a system of Virtual Research Environments and provide new services where RIs from different disciplinary subdomains contribute, in harmonized ways, to address scientifically and societally relevant issues. Each selected topic will have a dedicated VRE, providing eScience facilities for data harmonization, analysis, modeling, and computational power. VREs will have modular structures with semantic services for data discovery, harmonization, and interoperability, alongside integrated tools for analysis and modeling. Continuous data flow from individual RIs and new instrumentation acquired in ITINERIS will fill information gaps..This systemic approach will strongly support the Italian role in several RIs and favour taking a leading role in addressing complex, multi-disciplinary challenges.
Major Objectives
- Implement a network of CZ observatories and their VRE to study the dynamics of the Critical Zone (CZ) linking biosphere, geosphere and atmosphere;
- Studying the standing biomass dynamics by integrating data resources, services and modelling tools of different RIs pertaining to the different domains;
- Making accessible an array of cross-platform modelling solutions, data transformation tools, and cloud hosted computational facilities to contribute to crop production, plant phenology, pest and disease spread, and cropping system;
- Build an Essential Variables VRE (EV VRE) based on the Essential Climate (ECV) and Biodiversity (EBV) Variables produced by the Italian observatories and field campaigns;
- Implement the aerosol-biosphere Virtual Research Environment (AERO VRE) for visualizing climatological charts of the aerosol types occurred at the different sites; indicators of the occurrence of the desert dust; statistical plots of the atmospheric boundary layer properties;
- Implement specific carbon cycle VRE (CARBON VRE) services that will include the main carbon reservoirs (atmosphere,oceans, terrestrial biosphere and geosphere) and the direct anthropogenic emissions;
- Implement the Virtual Research Environment on indicators of climate change (CLIMAVRE) to gather the climatic variables from the RIs of the different domains for providing the proper indicators to quantify climate change and its impacts;
- Implement the Virtual Research Environment VRE services on downstream effects of environmental change (DOWNSTREAM VRE) to be dedicated to the use of RI data on the nexus of climate and environmental change effects, carbon, and Earth System response focusing on the impact of environmental change in the marine and terrestrial domains;
- Implement the national ISOTOPE VRE to allow researchers and environmental managers to retrieve coordinated information and analysis tools, supporting the implementation of new laboratory facilities to fill the gaps in the current ability to analyze isotopes from different matrices.