Wright, Don

English

ScholarWorks @ The University of New Orleans

University of New Orleans 
ScholarWorks@UNO 
Ocean Waves Workshop 
Jan 15th, 8:45 AM - 9:00 AM 
SURA and the Science of Collaborative Research 
Don Wright 
Southeastern Universities Research Association 
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/oceanwaves 
Wright, Don, "SURA and the Science of Collaborative Research" (2015). Ocean Waves Workshop. 2. 
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/oceanwaves/2015/Introduction/2 
This is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in 
Ocean Waves Workshop by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please 
contact scholarworks@uno.edu. 
Ocean Wave Workshop (http://scholarworks.uno.edu/oceanwaves/2015/) Proceedings - 4 
 
Opening Comments 
 
 
SURA and the Science of Collaborative Research  
 
Dr. Don Wright 
 Director of Coastal and Environmental Research 
Southeastern Universities Research Association 
1201 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 430 
Washington, D.C. 20005 
 
 
SURA facilitates multi-institutional collaborations, 
develops data and model standards and frameworks, 
enables comparisons of multiple models and pro-
vides HPC, data archiving and visualization sup-
port. 
 
The Southeastern Universities Research Associa-
tion (SURA) is a 501(c)(3) founded in 1980 to 
“collaborate on transformational research, education 
and training of next generation scientists and engi-
neers” and development across disciplines. The 
original focus was to design, bid for, build and 
manage the Thomas Jefferson Accelerator Facility 
(JLab) , a nuclear physics research facility in New-
port News, VA.  Today,  SURA’s Research Pro-
grams and initiatives include  Nuclear Physics 
(JLab), Information Technology, Coastal & Envi-
ronmental Research, and Minority Outreach. The 
program of immediate relevance to this workshop is 
Coastal and Environmental Research. 
 
The ongoing NOAA-funded, SURA-led Coastal 
and Ocean Modeling Testbed (COMT) has demon-
strated significant success in facilitating a mul-
ti-institutional collaboration. The COMT has shown 
that accessible and discoverable observational data 
integrated with an advanced suite of open source 
community models can enable discovery and inno-
vation of large-scale processes. The goal has been to 
accelerate the transition of scientific and technical 
advances from the coastal ocean modeling research 
community to improved operational services. 
 
A new SURA-led initiative is focused on Under-
standing and Modeling Risk and Resilience in 
Complex Coastal Systems.  This initiative involves 
integration of the natural and social sciences to mit-
igate the nation’s risk of loss of life and physical and 
economic damage from natural and manmade haz-
ards.  The overall goal is to integrate social and 
natural sciences to assist planning and risk assess-
ment of coastal communities threatened by both 
long-term and event-driven (e.g., by severe storms) 
inundation, land loss, water quality degradation and 
resulting economic declines in industries such as 
tourism, fisheries and shipping. 
 
Wave-related COMT activities to date have focused 
largely on predictions of deep-water conditions and 
on wave-storm-surge coupling.  However, the in-
tensely non-linear transformations that take place in 
the shallow waters of the inner shelf and surf zone 
play critical roles in driving the processes of coastal 
erosion, sediment redistribution and inundation 
height. Included are wave dissipation by bed friction, 
energy transfer to soft cohesive inner shelf beds,  
wave induced sediment transport and related shal-
low water wave transformations that condition the 
nature of wave spectra and breakers within the surf 
zone. Future Testbed activities should encourage 
participation of the nearshore research community. 
SURA can facilitate multi-institutional collabora-
tions, develop standards and frameworks, enable 
comparisons of multiple models and provide High 
Performance Computing, data archiving and visual-
ization support.   
 
References 
 
Luetich, R.A., L.D. Wright, R. Signell, C. Friedrichs, 
M Friedrichs, J. Harding, K. Fennel, E. Howlett, S. 
Graves, E. Smith, G. Crane, and R. Baltes, 2013, 
Introduction to Special Section on the U.S. IOOS 
Coastal and Ocean Modeling Testbed, J. Geophys. 
Res. Oceans, 118, pp 1-10 
 
SURA, Workshop entitled, “Understanding and 
Modeling Risk and Resilience in Complex Coastal 
Systems,” October 29 & 30, 2014, Southeastern 
Universities Research Association, 1201 New York 
Ave. NW., Washington, DC. 


SURA and the Science of Collaborative Research

University of New Orleans

University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO Ocean Waves Workshop Jan 15th, 8:45 AM - 9:00 AM SURA and the Science of Collaborative Research Don Wright Southeastern Universities Research Association Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/oceanwaves Wright, Don, "SURA and the Science of Collaborative Research" (2015). Ocean Waves Workshop. 2. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/oceanwaves/2015/Introduction/2 This is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Ocean Waves Workshop by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact scholarworks@uno.edu. Ocean Wave Workshop (http://scholarworks.uno.edu/oceanwaves/2015/) Proceedings - 4  Opening Comments   SURA and the Science of Collaborative Research   Dr. Don Wright  Director of Coastal and Environmental Research Southeastern Universities Research Association 1201 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 430 Washington, D.C. 20005   SURA facilitates multi-institutional collaborations, develops data and model standards and frameworks, enables comparisons of multiple models and pro-vides HPC, data archiving and visualization sup-port.  The Southeastern Universities Research Associa-tion (SURA) is a 501(c)(3) founded in 1980 to “collaborate on transformational research, education and training of next generation scientists and engi-neers” and development across disciplines. The original focus was to design, bid for, build and manage the Thomas Jefferson Accelerator Facility (JLab) , a nuclear physics research facility in New-port News, VA.  Today,  SURA’s Research Pro-grams and initiatives include  Nuclear Physics (JLab), Information Technology, Coastal & Envi-ronmental Research, and Minority Outreach. The program of immediate relevance to this workshop is Coastal and Environmental Research.  The ongoing NOAA-funded, SURA-led Coastal and Ocean Modeling Testbed (COMT) has demon-strated significant success in facilitating a mul-ti-institutional collaboration. The COMT has shown that accessible and discoverable observational data integrated with an advanced suite of open source community models can enable discovery and inno-vation of large-scale processes. The goal has been to accelerate the transition of scientific and technical advances from the coastal ocean modeling research community to improved operational services.  A new SURA-led initiative is focused on Under-standing and Modeling Risk and Resilience in Complex Coastal Systems.  This initiative involves integration of the natural and social sciences to mit-igate the nation’s risk of loss of life and physical and economic damage from natural and manmade haz-ards.  The overall goal is to integrate social and natural sciences to assist planning and risk assess-ment of coastal communities threatened by both long-term and event-driven (e.g., by severe storms) inundation, land loss, water quality degradation and resulting economic declines in industries such as tourism, fisheries and shipping.  Wave-related COMT activities to date have focused largely on predictions of deep-water conditions and on wave-storm-surge coupling.  However, the in-tensely non-linear transformations that take place in the shallow waters of the inner shelf and surf zone play critical roles in driving the processes of coastal erosion, sediment redistribution and inundation height. Included are wave dissipation by bed friction, energy transfer to soft cohesive inner shelf beds,  wave induced sediment transport and related shal-low water wave transformations that condition the nature of wave spectra and breakers within the surf zone. Future Testbed activities should encourage participation of the nearshore research community. SURA can facilitate multi-institutional collabora-tions, develop standards and frameworks, enable comparisons of multiple models and provide High Performance Computing, data archiving and visual-ization support.    References  Luetich, R.A., L.D. Wright, R. Signell, C. Friedrichs, M Friedrichs, J. Harding, K. Fennel, E. Howlett, S. Graves, E. Smith, G. Crane, and R. Baltes, 2013, Introduction to Special Section on the U.S. IOOS Coastal and Ocean Modeling Testbed, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 118, pp 1-10  SURA, Workshop entitled, “Understanding and Modeling Risk and Resilience in Complex Coastal Systems,” October 29 & 30, 2014, Southeastern Universities Research Association, 1201 New York Ave. NW., Washington, DC. 

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