Progress Report

CICEET Progress Report for the period 9/15/03 through 3/15/04

Project Title: DATAVIEW: A Real-Time Spatially-Explicit Visualization Interface and Monitoring System for Estuarine and Coastal Water Quality Data
Principal Investigator(s): Mark Trice, Bruce Michael, Walter Boynton

Accomplishments
Scheduled Tasks:
The following tasks were scheduled for activity and/or completion during the designated 6-month reporting period:

  1. Existing DATAFLOW and continuous monitoring project for 2003 in the Jug Bay and Otter Point Creek NERRS site.
  2. Query select DATAFLOW users for additional ideas for improving DATAVIEW software features or layout
  3. Begin acquisition of monitoring equipment, computer hardware, and GPS components and begin construction of new DATAFLOW unit.
  4. MD DNR to complete written specifications for DATAVIEW software functionality and visual layout, and request third party bid submissions for software programming. Bid process will be conducted among State of Maryland certified IT vendors through a set DNR procurement process.
  5. Select software vendor to program DATAVIEW module and request a prototype with core functions to be available by May 2004.

Progress on Tasks

  1. DATAFLOW and continuous monitoring were successfully completed in the Otter Point Creek and Jug Bay NERRS in 2003. Data and maps for these sites and many others within Maryland’s Chesapeake and Coastal Bays are online at http://www.eyesonthebay.net. In 2004, Maryland DNR is implementing DATAFLOW in 12 systems, continuous monitoring at 35 sites, continuous vertical water column profiling at 1 site, and 3 weather stations (One each at Jug Bay and Otter Point Creek NERRS).
  2. Additional ideas and applications for DATAVIEW have been solicited from the water quality monitoring and coastal and estuarine studies community. The conceptual framework has been presented at a variety of forums including an exhibit at the 2003 Coastal Zone Management Conference in Baltimore, MD, a Remote Sensing Meeting held at the NOAA Coastal Services Center in Charleston, SC, and the Quality Assurance Real-Time Ocean Data Conference in Stennis Space Center, MS.

    A Water Quality Mapping / DATAVIEW survey has been posted at http://mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/sim/dataview_surveyintro.cfm and has been distributed to a core user group. The survey asks users to rate various proposed elements of DATAVIEW and queries users for their proposed uses of the technology and any additional features they’d like included in the design. In the coming weeks the survey will be distributed to a wider audience where we will solicit input from NERRS site managers, coastal zone managers and others.

  3. The initial DATAVIEW proposal included funding for a new DATAFLOW monitoring unit. Under a revised final budget, CICEET funding for an additional DATAFLOW was excluded. Fortunately, Maryland DNR was able to obtain funding through other sources to construct two additional DATAFLOW units. Having multiple units ensures that a DATAFLOW unit will be available for laboratory software testing. DNR continues to establish new partnerships to enhance our spatial monitoring coverage and transfer new innovative monitoring technologies to other monitoring agencies, environmental groups, and academic institutions.

    Maryland DNR has contracted with Advanced Information Engineering Service (AI-ES), a division of General Dynamics, to build the additional DATAFLOW units. We have worked closely with AI-ES since October to develop the next generation of DATAFLOW. Working with AI-ES has allowed us to build a more streamlined, robust and hardy monitoring package and has also allowed us to fully document and standardize the construction of DATAFLOW units.

    During the design phase, careful consideration of DATAVIEW software needs were addressed. Extensive research was conducted to provide affordable and proper display and CPU capabilities needed for DATAVIEW’s use in harsh weather conditions. The possible use of data telemetry and additional monitoring equipment was also factored into the design to provide the means for future upgrades. The new DATAFLOW units have been successfully tested on the benchtop.

    A final DATAFLOW critical design review will be held on March 19, 2004, and the final units will be delivered at the end of March 2004. Attached for CICEET-only review are two powerpoint presentations documenting DATAFLOW specifications and design.

  4. DNR has had an initial meeting on October 16, 2003 with the Towson University Center for GIS (TUCGIS) to discuss the DATAVIEW design. DNR presented the rough outline and concept of DATAVIEW and TUCGIS presented their capabilities and results from previous GIS-related projects. Discussions were held regarding the conceptual design and possible technologies that could be used to implement the project.

    Discussions have also been held with personnel from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) regarding their existing system for “Data Acquisition, Management and Analysis for Marine Microbial Systems Research”. The MBARI system allows data and metadata from multiple oceanographic ships to be entered into a central database and viewed simultaneously by multiple viewers. Currently their system does not operate with rapid real-time datastreams as the DATAVIEW concept would require and may not be compatible for use aboard small boats. Talks are underway to investigate and share their code, and enhance their system to meet our needs.

    Finally, during the past several months Maryland DNR has spearheaded an effort, in conjunction with the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program and Virginia, to develop rigorous QA/QC and metadata protocols for all shallow water monitoring (DATAFLOW and continuous monitoring) program data. As part of this effort, Maryland DNR has developed a Visual Basic interface that performs automated QA/QC checks, reformats data for internet presentation and official submissions, and provides routines that ease the addition of error, method and comment codes to the shallow water monitoring databases. Future development aims to provide automated conversion of EPA-formated data to an acceptable NERRS format. An initial meeting was held with the NERRS Central Data Management Office (CDMO), Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) and Maryland DNR on March 2, 2004 and an additional meeting will be scheduled between these parties to coordinate data conversion to the national NERRS standards. In the end, we hope to incorporate facets of this Visual Basic program to DATAVIEW, allowing addition of data error/comment codes to real-time data, thus allowing easier and more reliable record keeping in the field.

  5. The ultimate software vendor has not been finalized due to longer development times for the hardware. New hardware development was a necessary first step before complete initiation of software coding and selection of a vendor, since the datastream communication protocols and data format from the new hardware were uncertain until recent prototype completion.

Difficulties Encountered
Only minor difficulties have been confronted thus far. The final executed CICEET contract was not received until December 2003. As mentioned above, new DATAFLOW construction was delayed somewhat by an effort to acquire outside funding. This has marginally delayed our progress towards software development.

Anticipated Success in Meeting Project Objectives in Scheduled Project Period
The project is on-track and we fully anticipate meeting the final deadlines. With the delay in software development due to hardware considerations, testing of a prototype may be delayed until later in 2004 than originally scheduled.

Preliminary Data
See attached powerpoint files of DATAFLOW specifications and design. These files are currently proprietary information of AI-ES and are not yet viewable by the public.

Tasks and activities for the next reporting period

Tasks for the next reporting period
As outlined in our proposal:

  1. Continued DATAFLOW and continuous monitoring of Jug Bay and Otter Point Creek NERRS sites
  2. Initial testing of new DATAFLOW unit with prototype DATAVIEW system and possible continued use with existing monitoring program during summer 2004 depending on prototype performance.
  3. Feedback to software vendor from initial testing period

Work plan to accomplish tasks
Continued sampling of NERRS sites for 2004 is underway and no problems are expected. For 2004, we are installing three weather stations at Jug Bay, Otter Point Creek, and Sandy Point State Park, and continuous monitors throughout the state will telemeter data to http://www.eyesonthebay.net. The addition of onsite meteorological data at the NERRS locations will provide interesting output to incorporate into our shallow water monitoring results and DATAVIEW testing.

We look to compile our survey results in the next few weeks and then develop a software design framework in association with the selected software contractor. A detailed timeline will be developed for the chosen contractor to meet project milestones. It is hoped that a working prototype will be available in late summer 2004, allowing for at least two months of testing and refinement before winter.

Concerns or difficulties
The only foreseen concern is difficulty executing a contract with an outside software consultant, given the difficulty of bidding contracts through the state system. We are hoping to avoid this pitfall, by possibly entering into a Memorandum of Understanding with a reliable University contractor.

Expenditures
Expenditures were in the range expected. Most larger expenditures are set to occur later in the project.