Overview
The goal of the Critical-Zone Collaborative Network is to establish an adaptive and responsive research network that supports investigations of the Earth’s Critical Zone (CZ). This network will consist of two components that will work together to advance knowledge, education, and outreach in this convergent science: 1) Thematic Clusters of fixed or temporary locations will conduct basic research on significant, overarching scientific questions concerning the structure, function, and processes of the Critical Zone. These U.S.-based Clusters could include existing observatories engaged in collecting environmental data, other monitoring locations that have been in operation for extended periods of time, and new sites that will support the scientific goals of the Cluster; 2) A Coordinating Hub that will oversee the compatibility and archiving of the data resulting from the Thematic Clusters, coordinate outreach and community-building activities, support the use of network facilities by outside researchers, and plan for infrastructure needs of the network.
RENCI’s Role
Provide a robust cyberinfrastructure for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data from the CZ Network Thematic Clusters leveraging Hydroshare, EarthChem, SESAR, OpenTopography, Zenodo, and DataOne, i.e., the cyberinfrastructure for the Critical-Zone Collaborative Network Coordinating Hub data submission portal, integrated data discovery and access, and computational resources for data analysis and visualization in support of CZ synthesis efforts through virtualized server infrastructure, storage management, monitoring, and system administration.
Project Team
- Chris Calloway (RENCI PI)
Partners
- CUAHSI (Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science)
- Utah Water Research Laboratory (USU)
- Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (Columbia)
Funding
- NSF
- CUAHSI
