SC19: Next Generation Disaster Intelligence Using the Continuum of Computing and Data Technologies

Modeling of the extent and dynamics of evolving plethora of environmental hazards, and their socio-economic and human impacts, is a data-driven discipline with a vibrant scientific community of computational modeling, remote sensing, data science, technology, and social science experts, driven by the urgent societal need to mitigate the rising frequency and severity of hazards. However, there are still challenges and opportunities in integration of the scientific discoveries and data-driven methods for hazards with the advances in technology and computing in a way that provides and enables different modalities of sensing and computing. Previously NSF-funded WIFIRE project took the first steps to tackle this problem with a goal to create an integrated system and services for wildfire monitoring, simulation, and response. Today, WIFIRE provides an end-to-end management infrastructure from data sensing and collection to modeling efforts, using a continuum of computing methods that integrate edge, cloud, and high-performance computing. Though this cyberinfrastructure, the WIFIRE project provides data driven knowledge for a wide range of public and private sector users enabling scientific, municipal, and educational use. This talk will review some of our recent work on building this dynamic data driven cyberinfrastructure and impactful application solution architectures that showcase integration of a variety of existing technologies and collaborative expertise. The lessons learned on use of edge and cloud computing on top of high-speed networks, open data integrity, reproducibility through containerization, and the role of automated workflows and provenance will also be summarized.