News Releases from Region 03
EPA Awards $150,000 to University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science to Upgrade Information Technology for Chesapeake Bay Restoration
PHILADELPHIA (December 11, 2017) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it is providing an additional $150,000 to the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) to continue support for managing and improving the computer technology used for Chesapeake Bay restoration.
“Clean water is a top priority for EPA” said EPA Regional Administrator Cosmo Servidio “This continuing collaboration is critical to building and maintaining the information infrastructure that supports the ongoing restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.”
On behalf of the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership, UMCES has significantly increased the computational capacity for Bay restoration by developing a cloud-based, high-performance computing environment which has significantly increased the partnership’s analytical capabilities, resulting in more accurate assessment of conditions, progress, and management practices at a localized scale.
“The strong partnership between the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the Chesapeake Bay Program ensures that the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay is based on sound science,” said Bill Dennison, Vice President for Science Applications at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
The funding also supports the partnership’s collaborative computing needs by managing the information technology supporting public websites, education and water quality modelling.
In addition to hosting partnership websites and applications, the UMCES computing environment provides a collaborative space for the analysis of key Chesapeake Bay data and information that is necessary to achieve the nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution load reductions needed for Bay restoration.
The agreement is currently in its fourth year of funding and UMCES has received a total of over $1.2 million to date for the project.
For more information, http://www.umces.edu/