Estuary Data Mapper GIS and Graphical User Interfaces for Decision Support * Organization U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Reference Code EPA-ORD-NHEERL-AED-2018-04 How to Apply
A complete application consists of: * An application * Transcripts * A current resume/CV, including academic history, employment history, relevant experiences, and publication list * Two educational or professional references All documents must be in English or include an official English translation. If you have questions, send an email to epa...@orau.org. Please include the reference code for this opportunity in your email. Description A research training opportunity is currently available at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD)/ National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL). This appointment will be served with the Atlantic Ecology Division (AED) in Narragansett, RI. This research project will provide the research participant with an opportunity to collaborate with a team of EPA scientists compiling, generating and providing access to data on coastal watersheds and estuarine systems to support decision-making and environmental management applications. The participant's research may involve preparing geospatial information on coastal watersheds and estuaries for inclusion within the EPA's Estuarine Data Mapper application (www2.epa.gov/edm) as well as a decision-support tool built upon an Excel graphical user interface. The Estuary Data Mapper is a stand-alone application that facilitates environmental data discovery, visualization and geospatial data download for coastal watershed and estuarine systems. Examples of information include historic and projected future nutrient loads and source allocations, nutrient sinks, indicators of estuarine vulnerability to nitrogen loads, groundwater vulnerability and contact times, historic and projected future atmospheric nitrogen loads, and watershed model outputs supporting EPA's Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST). The research participant will have an opportunity to develop a second Excel-based decision support tool to estimate and visualize nutrient concentration time series within individual estuaries using nationwide databases of nutrient loads from regional SPARROW models, estuarine morphometry, tidal range and hydrologic inputs, based on a simple tidal prism box model (Abdelrhman, M. 2007. Embayment characteristic time and biology via tidal prism model. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 74(4):742-55.). The latter graphical user interface may incorporate connections with R (e.g., via RExcel) and RShiny or visualization in Python using the python library, Bokeh. The research participant may have an opportunity to participate in the development of user interfaces for an emerging decision support tool to inform optimal watershed management strategies to meet loading targets to simultaneously protect both inland lakes/reservoirs as well as downstream estuaries. This will extend EPA's development of WMOST which functions at a small watershed (HUC12 to HUC10 scale) to optimization at a regional scale. WMOSTv3 is currently built on an Excel interface with VBA code running in the background to create AML descriptions of optimization problems to minimize a single objective, cost. WMOSTv4 will take advantage of the same Excel framework but will use Python to describe multi-objective optimization problems for solution using genetic algorithms. This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and EPA. For additional information about this program, please visit https://orise.orau.gov/epa/. This appointment is full time for one year and may be renewed upon recommendation of EPA and contingent on the availability of funds. The participant will receive a monthly stipend based on level of education. Funding may be made available to reimburse the participant’s travel expenses to present the results of his/her research at scientific conferences. No funding will be made available to cover travel costs for pre-appointment visits, relocation costs, tuition and fees, or participant’s health insurance. The participant must show proof of health and medical insurance. The participant does not become an EPA employee. The mentor for this project will be Naomi Detenbeck (detenbeck.na...@epa.gov). The desired start date is July 9, 2018. Qualifications Applicants must have received a master’s degree in geography, environmental sciences, oceanography, geology, hydrology, or a closely related field within five years of the desired starting date. Experience using ArcMap and extensions. Experience using R for geospatial visualization and in conjunction with Excel (e.g., RExcel package), with some background in VBA is also desired. Eligibility Requirements Degree: Master's Degree received within 60 months. To apply, please go to: https://www.zintellect.com/Opportunity/Details/EPA-ORD-NHEERL-AED-2018-04 *
