Atkinson, J. Kirk

Meier, Albert

Meier, Ouida

Zhuhadar, Leyla

TopSCHOLAR

Western Kentucky UniversityTopSCHOLAR®Mammoth Cave Research Symposia 11th Research Symposium 2016Apr 20th, 11:00 AMWhat Data Analytics Can Do for You!Leyla ZhuhadarWKU Initiative for Applied Data Analytics, Western Kentucky University, leyla.zhuhadar@wku.eduJ. Kirk AtkinsonWKU Initiative for Applied Data Analytics, Western Kentucky University, kirk.atkinson@wku.eduAlbert MeierWKU Green River Preserve, Department of Biology, Western Kentucky UniversityOuida MeierWKU Green River Preserve, Department of Biology, Western Kentucky UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/mc_reserch_sympPart of the Animal Sciences Commons, Forest Sciences Commons, Geology Commons,Hydrology Commons, Other Earth Sciences Commons, and the Plant Sciences CommonsThis is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mammoth Cave Research Symposia by anauthorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact todd.seguin@wku.edu.Recommended CitationLeyla Zhuhadar, J. Kirk Atkinson, Albert Meier, and Ouida Meier, "What Data Analytics Can Do for You!" (April 20, 2016). MammothCave Research Symposia. Paper 6.http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/mc_reserch_symp/11th_Research_Symposium_2016/Day_three/6Proceedings for Celebrating the Diversity of Research in the Mammoth Cave Region: 11th Research Symposium at Mammoth Cave National Park. Editors: Shannon R. Trimboli, Luke E. Dodd, and De’Etra Young.166What Data Analytics Can Do for You!Leyla Zhuhadar1, Kirk Atkinson1, Albert Meier2, and Ouida Meier21 WKU Initiative for Applied Data Analytics, Western Kentucky University2 WKU Green River Preserve, Department of Biology, Western Kentucky UniversityAbstractIn this presentation, we describe how the WKU Initiative for Applied Data Analytics (ADA) can play a key role in helping YOU as a business organization or an environmental research entity make sense of YOUR data and how to best utilize it. As an example, we will present our first grant proposal entitled “Designing and Implementing a Cloud-based Repository for the WKU Green River Preserve: Moving from Entrenched Data Structure to Semantic Web.” The ADA Initiative recently offered his research services in Data Mining and Predictive Analytics to WKU Green River Preserve (GRP). Dr. Albert Meier (Executive Director of the GRP) and Dr. Ouida Meier have decades of experience and honorable efforts to host numerous projects focused on the Preserve or included it as a study site in a larger project. Through a grant proposal, we are planning to work with Dr. Meier to capture, organize, store, and release various types of datasets that are being accumulated and that are growing at an accelerated rate at the Green River Preserve (GRP). In this presentation, we will describe what Data Analytics can do for GRP and/or for YOU!IntroductionThe GRP is an ideal location from which to study the ecology of the Green River watershed, home to high biological diversity and one of earth’s best developed karst systems. The goal for this research project is to capture, organize, store, and release various types of datasets that are being accumulated and that are growing at an accelerated rate at the Green River Preserve (GRP). The GRP hosts numerous projects, and in the process, data is generated for monitoring, land management activities, visitor-ship, plant and animal occurrences, and GIS mapping layers. These datasets must be carefully structured, recorded, stored, and made thoughtfully accessible to maximize benefit to researchers for further research, education, conservation, and outreach. This is true for both near term and for longitudinal research usefulness. The valuable lessons learned in this project will be readily applied by investigators and involved students to other fields of data work, and the resulting information structures will provide a stable repository for additional projects, classes, research, and community outreach. The repository will be extremely valuable to investigators in multiple fields seeking grants to support work using the GRP, and so will be an essential element in assuring long-term financial sustainability of the GRP. The information structures will also be of interest to other stations, parks, and sites where conservation, research and education are primary goals, and where reliable documentation of environmental conditions and biota are essential to detecting changes over time.The goal for this project is to automate the process of capturing, organizing, storing, and releasing various types of datasets that Proceedings for Celebrating the Diversity of Research in the Mammoth Cave Region: 11th Research Symposium at Mammoth Cave National Park. Editors: Shannon R. Trimboli, Luke E. Dodd, and De’Etra Young.167are being accumulated and that are growing at an accelerated rate at the Green River Preserve. Several specific areas of data challenge are described in the next sections.Background and Related WorkThe Western Kentucky University Green River Preserve (http://www.wku.edu/greenriver/) has a mission to foster knowledge and protection of our highly biodiverse region and natural heritage through research, education, and conservation. The Green River Preserve (GRP) is now over 1,500 acres. It includes 7 miles of river frontage and helps protect 12 endangered species of mussels, cave shrimp, bats, and many other species and habitats. This remarkable place has generated enormous benefits for WKU in multiple areas of research, education, conservation, and service, as following: • Research: Since the opening of thePreserve in 2004, 11 peer-reviewedpublications, 12 master’s theses, 7undergraduate honors theses, andover 90 presentations at conferenceshave focused on the Preserve orincluded it as a study site in a largerproject.• Education: A broad range of classes,labs and field trips from severaldepartments are held at the GRPin biology, geology, architecture,folk studies and anthropology, K-12classes, and visiting classes fromother universities. Many of thestudents in these classes participate inresearch projects as well• Conservation: Dr. Albert Meier wasawarded the first annual StewardshipAward in 2010 by the KHLCFB formanagement of the GRP, and the2012 Biological Diversity ProtectionAward from the KSNPC. GRP terrestrial habitats are very diverse, and the Green River that flows through it hosts over 150 fish and 71 mussel species, and ranks 4th in the US in imperiled fish and mussel species. • Service: The GRP hosts trainingexperiences for rescue squads,conservation agency training, scoutcamping, non-profit group retreats,hiking and canoeing groups, andan annual deer management huntby wounded soldiers and weekendsummertime canoe retreats for theveterans and their families.Future DirectionsA new plan has been proposed for the future of the Preserve that increases research, teaching, outreach, and support of local economic development. This past year we were able to hire a part-time land manager and partially fund two director positions, and plan to develop additional facilities to support research and education. In the long term, we hope these efforts will help the GRP function similarly to a Long-Term Ecological Research site, where the value of prior work increases with time.Proposed Research Idea Green River Preserve has numerous datasets; these datasets must be carefully structured, recorded, stored, and made thoughtfully accessible to maximize benefit to researchers for further research, education, conservation, and outreach. This is true for both near term and for longitudinal research usefulness. The goal for this research project is to automate the process of capturing, organizing, storing, and releasing various types of datasets that are being accumulated Proceedings for Celebrating the Diversity of Research in the Mammoth Cave Region: 11th Research Symposium at Mammoth Cave National Park. Editors: Shannon R. Trimboli, Luke E. Dodd, and De’Etra Young.168and that are growing at an accelerated rate at the Green River Preserve. Operations, management, research, teaching, and other projects at the Green River Preserve pose layers of distinct challenges in data aggregation, structuring, management, analysis, and mining. Several specific areas of data challenge are described below.Environmental sensor monitoring data At the GRP is being collected on a near-continuous (every 3 minutes) basis, and is downloaded monthly. Attributes of weather and soil sensor stations include date, time, air temperature, relative humidity, sunlight available for photosynthesis (PAR), and soil moisture. There are currently 5 such weather and soil sensor stations over the 1,520 acres of the GRP, plus 3 additional weather stations with only temperature and relative humidity data. There is a need to develop standard procedures for documenting instruments, retrieving data, cleaning, archiving and serving raw or minimally processed data to researchers and classes for long-term projects and for context in short-term projects and studies, as well as for potential data exploration procedures (e.g., site comparison, time series analysis, heterogeneity analysis, and other patterns through analytical and data mining procedures. After developing a workable prototype, we would like to expand the data array to include additional environmental sensors and images from security cameras and game cameras as well. Through a server, some data sets could be made open to the public, and others might require login to retrieve more restricted data.Biological baseline data At the GRP includes species lists by tract when acquired, as part of standard management requirements from the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund Board (KHLCFB) who funded purchase of these land tracts. Species lists from biological surveys at a minimum include plants, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. While some groups such as plants have their distributions mapped at the community level, or as a species in the case of invasive exotics that require our efforts toward eradication, others can only be identified by tract (it is illegal to give public notice of the precise locations of federally endangered species where that information might lead to harvesting of protected organisms). GRP species lists are on deposit with the KHLCFB, and in simplified form online at DiscoverLife.org.Project data Management This data is needed to document information collected within numerous research and conservation projects, biological restoration and management. In addition to the environmental sensor data and baseline biological data already mentioned, project data is also generated for monitoring, land management activities, plant and animal occurrences, and GIS mapping layers. Our research agreement collects and stores project proposal data, and includes a commitment by individuals conducting research to share raw data and subsequent analyses and publications with the GRP. However, we do not yet have a suitable architecture for collecting and housing data and analyses at the project’s end beyond deposit of submitted files into a restricted-access directory on a WKU cloud-based, shared drive. Data standards have been developed by national organizations, which oversee collection and management of ecological data sets, and we should review, adopt, and publicize to our partners’ appropriate data standards.Proceedings for Celebrating the Diversity of Research in the Mammoth Cave Region: 11th Research Symposium at Mammoth Cave National Park. Editors: Shannon R. Trimboli, Luke E. Dodd, and De’Etra Young.169Business and financial data Data management is needed to reliably schedule and document visitor days and categories, determine costs and potential revenue sources. These datasets are not only essential for managing the GRP appropriately and efficiently, they also are nearly always requested by funding sources, from NSF’s facility development funding for field stations to local donors who want to know where their contributions will go and what their money will be spent on. Client data Client data is an important category for maintaining long-term relationships with people who visit or use the GRP and feel connected to it. This is currently maintained as a spreadsheet of contact information including email addresses, but more is needed to maintain connections, recruit volunteers, select people to remind of specific upcoming opportunities, pursue grants with our partners (from K-12 teachers to wounded veterans’ groups), track interaction sequences, add to event invitation lists, and solicit donations from when appropriate – people are the network for the lifeblood of the Preserve, and the basis for long-term sustainability. We need to keep in better contact with individuals we encounter in a myriad of roles, locations, and events who have an interest in the GRP. Daily work data These data need to be tracked: progress on projects; student worker and other employee accomplishments; visits and security issues; work, time, and travel required as preparation for events or class visits or new projects; and visitor accommodation. We currently use sign-in sheets at the main entrance to the GRP to track this information, but the method leaves out trips to other sections of the GRP (north side, Lawler Bend, WKURF tract) and does not provide a way to cross-tabulate results for better categorical summaries.Security Data Currently, spreadsheets are used for tracking, issuing, changing, and reclaiming labeled keys and electronic access codes, and who has been granted access for which time windows, is closely related to work data, project data, and client data. It makes sense to restructure this information and make it more accessible comprehensive, and able to be summarized and cleanly modified or tracked as changes occur.Specific Outcome of the ProjectThe specific outcome of the project will be a comprehensive system design for capturing, storing, and making available data for the Green River Preserve. The system design can be implemented in modules, as needed and as funding becomes available. As a test of the design, the modules for environmental monitoring data and biological baseline data will be populated and subjected to a range of analyses and data mining explorations to assess how the systems perform, and whether the databases themselves require additional fields or metadata in order to be useful for multiple research, teaching, and conservation projects over the long term. ConclusionThe project proposed is important on several scales. Developing plans for managing and fully using data will increase the value of the GRP to WKU, and to all who visit and work there for decades to come. The GRP offers opportunities for research and education, and also and plays an extremely important role in preserving biodiversity at the regional, state, and national levels. There remains a Proceedings for Celebrating the Diversity of Research in the Mammoth Cave Region: 11th Research Symposium at Mammoth Cave National Park. Editors: Shannon R. Trimboli, Luke E. Dodd, and De’Etra Young.170highly engaged community that contributes to the GRP as well as benefits from the GRP, and the Preserve offers unique opportunities for interdisciplinary work. The GRP is coming of age at a time when capture and use of data, including defining underlying structures and subsequent model development, is in a golden age. The ADA Initiative will consult data structures and methods developed earlier for other sites, but ideally the structure of data is optimized for the queries and models that will come from it. With more user-friendly data mining, data visualization, and data exploration techniques recently available, data management plans will be designed to meet the needs of current and future uses that we would not have imagined a decade ago. Structuring our full range of conservation, research, education, and service activities within a long-term data management design could offer the chance to share our unique solutions with other stations. A data management and deployment design would accelerate our productivity and our synergism among conservation, research, education and outreach work, as well as interactions between disciplines.ReferencesWKU Green River Preserve, Research Use Form. Last modified 2014. http://www.wku.edu/greenriver/forms/research_app.phpWKU Upper Green River Biological Preserve, Discover Life. Last modified Aug. 2010. http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/cl/US/KY/Hart/WKU_Green_River_Preserve/ 

What Data Analytics Can Do for You!

http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1140&context=mc_reserch_symp

What Data Analytics Can Do for You!

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

TopSCHOLAR