Research Infrastructures to enable an Integrated Earth: opportunities and outcomes from the 2023 Academy of Science Elizabeth and Frederick White Conference
Tim Rawling1, Beryl Morris2, Lesley Wyborn3, Rebecca Farrington1 1AuScope, Parkville, Vic, Australia2TERN, Brisbane, QLD, Australia3NCI, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Abstract
Throughout human history we have studied and observed all of Earth’s systems (Geosphere, Biosphere, Hydrosphere, Cryosphere and Atmosphere) but too often there has been negligible integration within and between research undertaken on these Earth systems. Neither has there been much integration across the activities of observing and monitoring, storage and enabling access to data, computing and modelling tools, which is required to understand the past, present and predicted future states. The lack of integrated scientific aspirations and data/compute Research Infrastructures (RIs) has reduced the advancement of our understanding of these interdependent complex systems, particularly as data is often collected in isolation, or to address very specific research problems. The challenges to achieving such an integrated perspective are scientific, technical, social, political and organisational.
This year a group of NCRIS (and National Environmental and Earth Scientific Facilities Forum) RIs held an Australian Academy of Science Frederick and Elizabeth White conference titled ‘Integrated Earth’, in order to address these issues. Here we present the outcomes of this meeting and invite interested researchers and RI team members to have input into the White Paper that we are developing based on those outcomes.
We intend this paper to influence the development of national strategies for developing integrated data research and infrastructures to support Earth and environmental science activities in Australia. This is your chance to make sure this document reflects your views.
Biography
Tim Rawling is the CEO of AuScope. His recent research has involved the development of regional/crustal-scale 4D geological models as well as new exploration methodologies involving 3D modelling and finite element simulation.
Dr Beryl Morris is Director of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN). Beryl has been CEO and Director of several science-related companies and maintains an active research program on the ecology and behaviour of carrion flies.
Lesley Wyborn is an Australian geoscientist and geoinformatics specialist, with a focus in high performance computing for geography and online analytics. She is an Adjunct Fellow at the Australian National University.