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1         Introduction

The Great Lakes of Gulf (GLTG) Virtual Observatory has been developed and maintained via 4 Phases. This document is the description of tasks for NCSA in new phase 5 corresponding to the goals of phase 5. There are 5 major goals:

1. Developing two new state sites and ongoing work with Illinois on GLTG site
2. Developing dashboard for MRB Trend sites
3. Developing Data platform for BMPs surveys from Prof. Reid Christianson
4. GLTG introduced to WFF Illinois Grantee Coalition
5. Maintaining and Improving Platform (GLTG)

Next section will describe detail tasks regarding each goal above.  

2         Tasks

Task A: Developing two new state sites and ongoing work with Illinois on GLTG site

• In cooperation with NGRREC and two new state agencies (in addition to Illinois), NCSA will deploy state specific GLTG Geodashboards
• NCSA will harvest and ingest new data for new states
• NCSA will integrate additional contextual data (geospatial layers) for new states
• NCSA will implement/test/finalize one or two new storyboards for each state

Progress Tracking: Due 1/31/2021 - Updated to June 2021

• Develop State Tracking Sites: LCCC will work with 2 new states and continue with Illinois to develop state specific sub-sites (user interface) that include state progress tracking dashboard, water quality data, key monitoring sites, and indicators for tracking changes in water quality.

• Links to state dashboards will be provide to WFF. Links will not be expected to be live to the public.

Progress Tracking: Due 4/30/2021 - updated to June 2021

• States approve water quality tracking: The three states LCCC worked with (Output 2), will use the GLTG water quality tracking dashboards developed for the sub-sites to measure progress implementing the state NLRS and disseminate information to public
• Dashboards tested, and approved, by representatives of supported states and go live on the web.

Task B: Developing dashboard for MRB Trend sites (Mississippi River Basin)

• NCSA will harvest and ingest new data for MRB Trend sites in new states
• NCSA will generate drainage polygons of MRB Trend sites
• In collaboration with the Hypoxia Task Force (HTF) and the 12 states represented within HTF, NGRREC will develop landing page/Geodashboard with 2-3 MRB Trend sites in each of the 12 HTF states if there are data available and each state is willing to share

Progress Tracking: Due 11/30/2020

• Develop tool: LCCC will develop a tool/algorithm to standardize approaches to calculate nutrient load conditions and trends
• Nutrient load trend analysis tool developed and tested and documentaiton shared with WFF

Outcome Due: 1/31/2021 - Due by 3/31/2021

• States Identify MRB Trend Sites: In collaboration with HTF’s Trends Work Group, each Mississippi River Basin state will identify at least one MRB Trend water quality monitoring location and approve it as a measure of progress for the HTF.

Progress Tracking: Due 4/30/2021

• Develop Dashboard: LCCC will complete the dashboard for network of MRB Trend sites in the Mississippi River Basin states.
• Dashboard and storyboard publicly available on site.

Outcome Due: 4/30/2021

• MRB Trend Sites approved and active: The HTF’s web site (or a linked site) will list all MRB Trend sites and current water quality data (as available) from those sites.
• Sites and current data are approved, by representatives of states, and go live on the web.

Task C: Developing Data platform for BMPs surveys working with Prof. Reid Christianson

• NCSA will design and develop storage model
• NCSA will develop a user interface to submit BMP data by state
• NCSA will develop visualization of the output - chart or geospatial layer

Progress Tracking: Due 9/30/2020 - Due June 2021

• Develop visualizations of conservation practices as a proof of concept for an agricultural conservation dashboard: LCCC will work with UIUC scientists to develop a methodology for visualizing the spatial extent and intensity of agricultural conservation practices in three individual watersheds in Illinois or Iowa. These visualizations will then be linked to relevant water quality data from those watersheds.

• Visualizations will be available on the GLTG website.

Outcomes: 4/30/2021

• States approve agricultural conservation dashboard: Six Mississippi River states will display data collected and analyzed by the University of Illinois on agricultural conservation practices.

• Dashboards tested, and approved, by representatives of supported states go live on the web. Links will be provided to WFF.

Task D: GLTG introduced to WFF Illinois Grantee Coalition 

• NGRREC will have engaged WFF Illinois grantee coalition and other natural resource conservation stakeholders in applying GLTG to help track, guide, and prioritize nutrient loss reduction policies and practices in Illinois
• NCSA will provide with conference room and teleconference for the meetings

Progress Tracking: Due 9/30/2019 pushed to 01/15/2020 - Due to COVID Held in September 2020

• LCCC will engage with WFF Illinois Grantees and other Natural Resource conservation stakeholders to develop a concept paper on how GLTG could be applied to help track, guide and prioritize nutrient loss reduction policies and practices in Illinois
• A short concept paper on how GLTG could be used to advance the implementation of the nutrient loss reduction strategy will be provided to WFF.

Task E: Maintaining and Improving Platform (GLTG)

• NCSA will harvest and ingest new data for existing GLTG site

• NCSA will integrate additional contextual data (geospatial layers) for existing GLTG site

• In cooperation with NGRREC and IEPA, NCSA will deploy a final version of Geodashboard V3 for GLTG site and Illinois site

• NCSA and NGRREC will gather, identify, prioritize, modify and implement as agreed additional user requirements along with lessons learned from Phase 4 GLTG state and basin Geodashboards

• NCSA will implement/test/finalize additional storyboards for GLTG and Illinois sites

• NCSA will develop a catalog page of existing models and outputs (if available)

• NCSA will develop a computational model page to execute Prof. McIssac's models and test the models with new state data

• NCSA will work with NGRREC and Kaiyu Guan on ingesting and visual display of remote sensing data

• NCSA will maintain the technology and fix bugs