Ms Sharon Tickell1, Mr Farhan Rizwi2, Mr Jack Beardsley2, Mr Erin Kenna1, Mr Daniel Wild2
1CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, St Lucia, Australia, 2CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Hobart, Australia
eReefs is a collaboration between the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and the Queensland Government Department of Environment and Science (DES) which delivers information about the Great Barrier Reef to support assessment of Reefs conditions. It began as a pilot project in 2011, proceeded to full-scale collaboration from 2012 and has been available to the public since 2015. It is currently in its fifth iteration of development with funding from the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF).
CSIRO’s portion of the collaboration includes data-assimilating hydrodynamic, sediment, optical and biogeochemical models running in near-real-time and hindcast mode, plus a public-facing web platform that incorporates data delivery, aggregation, visualisation, vocabulary, and discovery services, as well as a visual data explorer to assist with interrogation of the very large (and expanding) datasets.
Since the original launch, every operational application has been rewritten at least once and moved to new hosting multiple times, while the models have had several new versions, improved automation, and a growing user-base. The operations teams have consequently learned a tremendous amount about the requirements and best practices for maintaining, supporting, securing, and expanding this complex research infrastructure.
Within CSIRO, we’re feeding that knowledge back into our own strategic and tactical planning efforts and have subsequently delivered several additional platforms using a similar pattern. We’d now like to share some of the lessons we’ve learned with the wider eResearch community and learn from you in return.
Biography:
Sharon is a software engineer who has been involved with the design, deployment, and maintenance of the CSIRO eReefs data and visualisation components since 2013. She currently leads the CSIRO O&A Coastal Informatics team and is involved with the ongoing operation of multiple eResearch platforms including eReefs, OzCoasts, the CSIRO Storm Bay Decision Support platform and the RRAP modelling and decision support information System.