Location: Agroclimate and Hydraulics Research Unit
Project Number: 3070-13000-014-017-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 3, 2024
End Date: Jun 2, 2025
Objective:
This Agreement will provide funding for the cooperator as required to support the ARS project plan titled: “Development
of a Monitoring Network, Engineering Tools, and Guidelines for the Design, Analysis, and Rehabilitation of Embankment
Dams, Hydraulic Structures, and Channels”. The Cooperator will assist ARS with the following objectives over the course of
the next two years:
1) Developing hydrologic and hydraulic models for watersheds, and incorporating deep learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and
other novel search algorithms to offer innovative solutions to problems pertaining water availability and watershed
management.
2) Compiling existing instrumentation and monitoring technologies, and developing data integration technologies to aid in
testing, validating, and improving ecosystem model simulations.
3) Assessing the economic benefits of water resources infrastructure (dams, reservoirs, levees, irrigation canals, conservation
practices, green and hard infrastructure, etc.) on mitigation and risk reduction due to climate change, soil erosion, and
enhance public access to water supplies and sanitation.
4) Developing field instrumentation (e.g. unmanned aerial systems, AI, sensors, among others) and cloud-based data
visualization technologies to monitor, estimate, and predict ecosystem fluxes across multiple landscapes.
5) Developing holistic analytical decision support tools and optimization models that account for water use, environmental
conservation practices, and climate change adaptation among others to evaluate new technologies for aiding sustainable
resources management and precision agriculture and for assessing cost-benefit analysis of water resource development and
rehabilitation.
6) Identifying and compiling institutional barriers (e.g. policies, regulations, etc.) through stakeholder engagement including
mail and online surveys, interviews and consultation for the adoption of these holistic technologies and other decision tools to
improve/increase (i) water use efficiency, (ii) environmental conservation, (iii) drought and flood mitigation, and (iv) climate
adaption.
7) Training partners, stakeholders, specialists, educators, and students (e.g. K-12 through collegiate) through extension and
outreach activities by disseminating information and technologies through a decision support informatics platform, hands-on
learning, in-person and/or virtual meetings (e.g. symposium, workshops, webinars), social media, websites, and videos. Specifically, the cooperator will provide training as needed to ARS scientists and support staff on field instrumentation (e.g., mobile radar, disdrometers, sensors, data loggers) and models as it relates to atmospheric sciences.
8) Developing and refining semi-automated QA/QC tools for processing incoming radar, UAS, and IoT data with the goal of completing the AQ/AC as rapidly as possible, while ensuring that the datasets are scientifically sound.
9)Assisting with the development of the appropriate meta data, USDA ontologies, and data for Geospatial Data Act and National Archives and Records Administration compliance related to radar, UAS, and IoT data that the team plans to collect.
Approach:
The Cooperator will partner with ARS to assist on the defined objectives. Specifically, the Cooperator will provide technical support and expertise for revising and writing guidance documents and developing new and/or enhance hydrologic and/or hydraulic models. Instrumentation including UAVs, sensors, cloud-based data visualization technology, and other engineering tools will be utilized to collect, store and disseminate data from research sites. They will assist ARS in the dissemination of information through various formats (e.g. referred journal publications, decision support informatics platform, hands-on learning activities, symposiums, webinars, workshops, videos, field demonstration days, guidance documents, etc.) and contribute to a communications plan through extension and outreach related activities involving the outlined objectives.
