SBIR-STTR Award

State governors recognized the need for drought information, which resulted in the implementation of the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). Other government efforts provide climate services in order to monitor, forecast, and mitigate the impacts of climate. In response to the SBIR request for a "Robust Software Data Integration Tool in Support of the NIDIS and Climate Services Delivery", Riverside is proposing the development of a Climate Information Management (CIM) Toolkit. The CIM toolkit will perform data collection, processing, and data product generation functions in support of NIDIS and other climate web portals. The effort will be consistent with existing NIDIS technologies, utilize proven components and new technology, and be demonstrated via a prototype implementation for Colorado. Riverside’s expertise with developing similar systems, and our working relationships with data providers and water suppliers, ensures that technical objectives and user needs will be met by the solution. SUMMARY OF

Anticipated Results:
Produce a feasibility report and prototype assessing the ability to produce a data integration tool capable of meeting the needs of federal programs such as NIDIS

The SBIR solicitation expressed the need for tools to process data from disparate sources in various formats and generate drought-relevant data products. NIDIS also recognizes a need to span organizational boundaries to provide access to integrated drought information for use in water management. The Phase I SBIR project resulted in prototype Climate Information Management Toolkit (CIMT) software that automates data collection, processing, and product generation. Phase II will focus on enhancing the prototype CIMT to a production level suitable for application by local water organizations and NIDIS. Riverside’s relationship with local, regional, and state organizations in Colorado allows for a bottom-up application of these tools, while coordinating with NIDIS pilot projects and agency efforts to meet national goals. Specific tasks include: improved implementation of existing web services, enabling new web services for important local data sets, implementing tools to compute water supply indices and triggers, and enhancing tools to consider climate change in data products. Stakeholders in the water community will have access to these tools, which can be integrated with the NIDIS Drought Portal. Riverside’s track-record with stakeholders, technical expertise, and ability to integrate with ongoing efforts provides an opportunity to demonstrate NIDIS efforts at the local level. SUMMARY OF

Anticipated Results:
This project will directly benefit water organizations through improved tools and data products related to drought and water supply. Implementations at a local level will be consistent with NIDIS pilot projects and will allow transfer to other regions, and implementation on the NIDIS portal. Riverside will develop additional expertise related to data, drought, and climate change, which will be parlayed into additional commercial opportunities