Innovative Information and Visualization Technology for Sustainable
Economic and Regional Development: A Watershed Partnership

National Science Foundation-Partnerships for Innovation

On April 9, 2003, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD's Urban Studies and Planning Program, and the San Diego Supercomputer Center submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation to create a "Partership for Innovation." Content of the proposal can be viewed at these links:

Project Summary (1 page, 59kb pdf) (also pasted below)

Project Narrative (16 pages, 280kb pdf)

Partner List and Letters of Support (16 pages, 1.2mb pdf)

References (2 pages, 87kb pdf)

To complete all the elements described in the full proposal, we will need the NSF-PFI support (awards will be announced October 2003). However, we currently have enough funds to get the process started. We can use support from UCSD's Superfund Basic Research Program, Outreach Core; and the resources of the Regional Workbench Consortium, to begin laying groundwork for building a Watershed Planning Support System.

The abstract, intellectual merit, and broader impact of the NSF-PFI project are noted below, followed by a list of the key partners and personnel.

Abstract
We propose a watershed-scale partnership that will extend the information and visualization innovations of university research to a group of local and regional government agencies and private companies, all seeking to address crucial problems in sustainable economic and regional development. In forming this partnership, we have defined three interlocking objectives: (1) create a Watershed Planning Support System that enables greater efficiency in corporate environmental management systems and government regulation, (2) produce an economic assessment of policy options regarding water quality impact mitigation and Best Management Practices (BMPs), and (3) incorporate underrepresented minorities and students into our collective effort by establishing a “sustainability science” educational and workforce development program in the San Diego River Watershed. On this last point, participants will be trained to collect field data useful for the economic assessment and task of building the Watershed Planning Support System. The partnership’s overarching goal is to work together in building an integrated watershed-based information system and set of visualization tools that can help break down barriers to effective planning and environmental management at a regional/watershed scale.

Intellectual merit
Increasingly efforts to promote economic development and quality of life must embrace a broad metropolitan and regional scale. Yet many barriers stand in the way, including difficulties associated with integrating, sharing, and managing information across jurisdictionally fragmented regional landscapes. Fortunately, the exponential growth of computing power, connectivity and flexibility is now enabling us to study, visualize, understand, and potentially manage, vastly more complex living and engineered systems than was hitherto possible. Along these lines, our partnership for innovation extends recent university advances in information and visualization technologies to specific regional watershed planning problems—especially water pollution. Our collective strategy exploits the potential of geospatial data and metadata management, digital libraries, 3D visualization, online interactive mapping, and solid terrain model technology. The crux of our innovation outcome will be the way we bundle and apply these tools in support of watershed planning, environmental management and education.

Broader impact
We will make the capabilities and products developed for professional decision making and information exchange readily available across the web, as well as for physical exhibits on public display or loan to schools. Our partner agencies are committed to incorporating our “Watershed Planning Support System” and other innovative outcomes into their ongoing institutional and business operations. We anticipate a long term and broad impact on a number of major regional planning initiatives that will be implemented over the next decade (the Regional Comprehensive Plan, Basin Plan Update, San Diego Watershed Management Plan). A major objective is to broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in watershed planning and management. In collaboration with the San Diego River Park Foundation, we will work with the Urban Corps of San Diego to establish a system of on-site field checks that document the location of environmental impact mitigation sites within the San Diego River Watershed. The Urban Corps is a local non-profit conservation group, nationally recognized for training and education of young adults from traditionally underserved communities. While our initial partnership project will focus on specific issues in our region, the methods we develop will be applicable to other problems in other areas. Our plan builds on a foundation laid by the Regional Workbench Consortium (RWBC), a newly created "knowledge-action collaborative" geared to linking science and technology to policy and planning for sustainable city-region development <http://regionalworkbench.org>. Through the RWBC, outcomes of the grant will be shared regionally through our partner organizations, as well as nationally and globally through the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), the Global Planning Education Association Network (GPEAN), and the Sustainability Science Initiative.

List of Partnership Organizations and Key Personnel

Partnership Leader and Main Contact:
Keith Pezzoli, Ph.D. <kpezzoli@ucsd.edu>
Urban Studies and Planning Program/ phone: 858-534-3691

ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS

Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO)

Charles F. Kennel, Dean of SIO
John Orcutt, Professor of Geophysics, Interim Dean of Marine Sciences

Geological Data Center (GDC) -- http://gdc.ucsd.edu
Dru Clark, Staff Researcher Associate
Stephen Miller, Director

SIO Visualization Center -- http://siovizcenter.ucsd.edu
Graham Kent, Director
Debi Kilb, Science Director

University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

Economics -- http://econ.ucsd.edu
Richard Carson, Chair
Wolfram Schlenker, Assistant Professor

San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) -- http://daks.sdsc.edu/
Richard Marciano, Director, Sustainable Archives and Digital Libraries Lab
Ilya Zaslavsky, Director, Spatial Information Integration Lab

Urban Studies & Planning (USP) -- http://usp.ucsd.edu/
Keith Pezzoli, Supervisor of Field Research, and
Regional Workbench Consortium, PI http://regionalworkbench.org

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

City of San Diego Water Department -- http://www.sannet.gov/water/quality
Bob Collins, Chair, Watershed Coordination Technical Workgroup
Jeff Pasek, Senior Biologist, Source Water Protection Program

County of San Diego Project Clean Water -- http://www.projectcleanwater.org
Teresa Brownyard, Director

San Diego Association of Governments (SanDAG) -- http://www.sandag.org
Mike Mclaughlin, Director of Regional Planning
Carolina Gregor, Senior Regional Planner
Jeff Tayman, Director of Research

San Diego Regional Water Quality Board (SDRWQB) .
http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb9/
John Robertus, Executive Director

PRIVATE SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS

Industrial Environmental Association (IEA) -- http://www.ieasdc.org
Patti Krebbs, Executive Director

Solid Terrain Modeling (STM) -- http://www.solidterrainmodeling.com
Lawrence Faulkner, President

NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

San Diego River Park Foundation -- http://www.sandiegoriver.org/
Rob Hutsel, Director

Telesis Corporation -- http://www.qolsandiego.net
David Cleveland, President
Shane DeGross, GIS and 3D Visualization specialist

TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANTS

Earthstar Geographics . http://www.es-geo.com
Eric Augenstein, President

Sparkers Inc. - Global Document Services -- http://www.sparkersinc.com
Jyotin Purohit, President

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