A Southeast Regional testbed for integrating complex coastal and ocean information systems

Government agencies, non-governmental organizations, commercial enterprises, and academic research programs have established a vast array of environmental databases for programmatic and research purposes. Most of these use different data management infrastructures that prevent repurposing or integrating information to serve other uses. Creating capacity to integrate and access disparate data streams enormously increases their value and application potential. Building on existing environmental information management expertise, USC has launched a Southeast Regional integration testbed (SRIT), and used this new capacity to implement an end-to-end decision support application that links monitoring data with predictive models in order to provide advance warning of impending beach contamination. The water quality Portlet project design reported herein serves as an exemplar toward establishing a sustained Center for Integrated Information Systems and Coastal Ocean Observations (CIISCOO) that will promote flexible, real-time data interoperability, across a wide user base, to efficiently meet evolving future needs.