PARTNERS: University of North Carolina Asheville's National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC)

SUMMARY: The EFETAC-NEMAC Collaborative was formed to meet the technology requirements of the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center (EFETAC). The mission of EFETAC is to generate, integrate, and assess environmental threats to public and private forests of the eastern US, and to deliver this knowledge to managers in ways that are timely, useful and user friendly. The collaboration between EFETAC and NEMAC supports the mission of the center with the development of advanced tools and technologies that support integrated threat assessments for a variety of audiences. Personnel from the Forest Service and NEMAC will work together to develop the database systems and software applications needed to achieve the short-term goals and implement the long-term vision of the center. 

Activities of this collaboration include, but are not limited to the improvement of data collection, management and analysis for integrated threat assessment; the enhancement of end-user capabilities and expertise for comparative risk and assessment; and the coordination of EFETAC-collaborator programmatic activities. The following is a summary of the tasks that will be performed: 

1. Assess and compile information and data needs for integrated risk assessments focused on forest threats.
2. Develop and maintain the infrastructure (equipment and software) for high-speed access, sharing and analysis of relevant environmental and socioeconomic databases.
3. Design data-synthesis, mining and analysis tools to meet specific information needs.
4. Improve end-user capabilities and expertise for comparative risk assessment with the development of CRAFT (Comparative Risk Assessment Framework and Tools) toolset. 
5. Provide central point of coordination and contact for numerous EFETAC partners (e.g. government agencies, universities, private sector firms). 

The primary benefit of this collaboration and the resulting deliverables relate to (a) understanding the problems involved in data collection, management and analysis of data for integrated threat assessment, (b) creating tools for assessment that meet the high-speed access and sharing needs of the environmental threat community and helping to further understand the problem, and (c) developing selected tools for deployment within the Forest Service (FS) and for decision makers, land owners, extension agents, and others. 

• EFETAC Website- www.forestthreats.org. NEMAC, along with the Southern Regional Extension Forestry at the University of Georgia, assisted EFETAC personnel with the design and development of the EFETAC website using an advanced content management system called PLONE. 
• Forest Threat Summary- This tool provides users with the capability to search an Integrated Threat Database system for up-to-date and reliable threat information including images, text, pertinent websites, extension and USFS personnel contact information, and maps of the spatial extent of the threat. The tool allows the user to search by keyword, browse through a listing of threats, and to search by region.  Experts and scientists have the ability to update threat information through a password-protected Threat Editor. 
• CRAFT (Comparative Risk Assessment Framework and Tools) - CRAFT is an advanced web and GIS-based toolset for decision makers that is used in a team facilitated environment. CRAFT, based on the NEPA Decision Protocol 2.0, utilizes database driven websites, GIS Viewers, conceptual models and Bayesian Belief Networks to help teams identify and clarify objectives, design alternatives, assess probable effects, and compare and communicate risks. 
• GIS Web Viewers- On-line viewing of GIS data is becoming increasingly important for the public, forest professionals and decision makers to view the most up-to-date spatial information for environmental threats. NEMAC is building on-line GIS systems using ESRI and open-source products to serve this spatial data for a variety of audiences. 
• Integrated Threat Database System and Middleware- Behind the CRAFT toolset, Forest Threat Summary and GIS Web Viewers lies a database called the Integrated Threat Database System. This system is built to store and deliver data to these tools. The middleware system is built to automatically process updated data from its original source. This involves data in the database “expiring” (based on data attributes) and new files are obtained from the Web to refresh it. The notification of expiration is sent to a “rules engine” for determination of the proper action to retrieve and transform the data. 
• Decision Theater and Immersive Dome technologies- NEMAC utilizes state-of-the-art visual technologies in conjunction with these toolsets to provide a new visual perspective for the decision maker. The Visualization Wall allows users to view multiple spatial datasets and tools simultaneously on a large Visualization wall. These visualizations can also be viewed in a fully immersive environment with the Immersive dome technology.

STATUS: Ongoing

LINKS: UNC Asheville's National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC)

CONTACT:

• Jim Fox, Director of Operations, jfox@unca.edu or (828) 301-2075 
• Karin Lichtenstein, Project Manager, klichten@unca.edu or (828) 250-3892 
• Todd Pierce, Research Scientist, tpierce@unca.edu or (828) 250-3879
• Bridget O’Hara, Communications Specialist, bohara@unca.edu or (828) 250-3882