Web service and plug-in architecture for flexibility and openness of environmental data sharing platforms

Session A1: Leveraging Cyberinfrastructure to Advance Scientific Productivity and Reproducibility in the Water Sciences

The sharing, comparison and maintenance of computer model input and result data for real-world projects is a challenge. In collaborative research projects, particularly when collaboration occurs between multiple institutions in different locations, the complications are greater still. The co-development of water resource network simulation and optimization models is one field that faces this challenge. There is a need for ways to allow multiple users to build and apply models collaboratively. This paper argues that a web service architecture is an appropriate approach for multi-institution maintenance of resource network models. We describe the design of a prototype system that allows developers to collaboratively create, edit and share data associated with resource network models.