Download Data-Driven Web Application for Access and Review of CERP

Data-Driven Web Application for Access and Review of CERP System-Wide
Modeling.
Kenneth C. Tarboton, Michelle M. Irizarry-Ortiz, Kurt D. Saari and Kevin A.
Rodberg
South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach, FL
A key feature in the development of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration
Plan (CERP) was the comparison of the performance of different water
management alternatives, facilitated through the use of performance measures
accessible on the Restudy Hydrologic Performance Measures Web Page
(http://www.sfwmd.gov/org/pld/restudy/hpm). As implementation of CERP
proceeds over the next 30 years it will be refined through more detailed design of
each project and monitoring of the response of the system to projects as they are
implemented. To facilitate system-wide plan evaluation, simulation models will
produce thousands of performance measures and indicators, for each of hundreds
of simulation runs. The new CERP System-Wide Modeling web application,
(http://modeling.cerpzone.org/cerp_recover/index.jsp) presented herein, facilitates
the regular posting of model results to the web making them accessible to multiagency, multi-disciplinary teams and the general public.
Design Criteria. Design criteria for the web page came from experience with
development, maintenance and extensive use of the Restudy web page. Key
design criteria included: minimizing the number of clicks to get to a particular
graphic, maximizing speed with which graphicsare displayed, minimizing reading
(i.e. a more graphical/spatial interface rather than text based), use of default
settings, and minimizing the maintenance of uploading multiple model
simulations on a regular basis. Furthermore there was a need to provide a
common interface and repository for input, output and source code and a means of
reviewing performance measures for each of the different models used to support
CERP System-Wide Modeling.
Functionality. Additional funtionality requirements in the CERP System-Wide
Modeling web page included: sorting by model, by project, by spatial feature (e.g.
graphics for canals distinct from graphics for gages and cells) or by topic (e.g.
separate access to animations, water budgets, water supply graphics, etc.).
Accessibility to model input, output and source code for each run was required, as
well as both a hierarchical and graphical means of accessing geographic locations
from any point in the page.
Architecture. The design criteria and required features of the web application
dictated certain design decisions. The ability to store and search for information
necessitated using a web accessible database comprising a database server,
application server and web browser. Oracle was selected as the database server
and Java as the 'open-source' application development environment in order to
ensure cross-platform compatibility and scalability. The database server stores
maps, graphics and tables and their associated spatial component information,
model data sets, metadata, and descriptive text. The application server's servlet
makes all database queries, delivers database driven dynamic menu information,
and delivers spatial/map features for different graphic locations. It also retrieves
the text and pdf (Portable Data Format) files from the database, based upon a
user’s selection, and presents them directly in the browser or using Adobe
Acrobat's browser plug-in, respectively. The web browser makes use of a thin
client Java server protocol (jsp) application to allow user interaction with the
servlet from dynamic menus and a spatial/map interface that presents information
and graphics.
Data Loading. Graphics from model simulations are converted to pdf files and
loaded to the database using a master control file and program that assigns the
spatial relational information, text for display on the web application, and a
unique database identifier for each graphic. This facilitates maintenance of the
web page because only the master control file needs to be updated whenever new
graphics are produced. The information provided in the application is
dynamically created based upon content in the database. This means that if for a
particular project or simulation certain graphics are not produced, then for that
simulation there will not be any broken links (links that point to a missing
graphic), as often happens with static web pages, because the link will not be
produced in the database. Input, output and source-code are also loaded to the
database using a control file and are associated to a particular model simulation.
Development. Development of the web application occurred over a period from
February 2001 up to the first public release of the page in October 2002. The
development included creation of an initial prototype, presented to CERP
Restoration Coordination and Verification (RECOVER) teams in July 2001. A
Beta release of the application was demonstrated to RECOVER in December
2001. Following comments from RECOVER significant design modifications
were made to the application before release to the public in October 2001. Since
then, the application has continued to evolve as a result of comments from the
potential user audience. Regional hydrologic modeling, undertaken since the
development of CERP has been loaded onto the application and production
modeling, commencing with the Initial CERP update and subsequent modeling
for CERP Project Delivery Teams, will be provided on the web application as it
becomes available.
Acknowledgements
Many individuals contributed significantly to the development of this application
including supervision by Marie Pietrucha and Pattie Fulton, development by
Mathew Hinton, Cory Adams, Jeyanthi Selvarasu, Michael Warner, Joseph
Rodrigues and Maryam Mashayekhi, graphical support by Jeffrey Sullivan and
Jenifer Barnes, hardware configuration by Ram Jadvani and review by Brenda
Mills, Carl Fitz, Freddie James and Michael Choate. All of these contributions
are gratefully acknowledged and without them the application would not have
been possible.
Contact: Ken Tarboton, South Florida Water Management District, 3301 Gun
Club Road, West Palm Beach, FL, 33406, Phone: 561-682-6017, Email:
[email protected]