Welcome to the CLEANER Project Office website for the WATERS Network

CLEANER is the acronym for Collaborative Large-scale Engineering Analysis Network for Environmental Research.

The CLEANER Project Office was established in July 2005 and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop a collaborative large-scale engineering analysis network to enable scientists to better understand human-stressed environmental systems by fundamentally transforming the field of environmental engineering. CLEANER is focusing its initial efforts on water quality, water availability, and forecasting, all of which are of immediate national concern. Other media, such as air and soils, are also of interest to the extent that they affect pollutant transport and transformation in water.

Because issues of water quality and quantity are also of interest to the hydrologic research community, the CLEANER Project Office is working with the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences, Inc (CUAHSI-imbed weblink to CUAHSI) to plan a dual-purpose network called the WATer and Environmental Research Systems (WATERS) Network. The WATERS Network is proposed as a networked infrastructure of environmental field facilities working to promote multidisciplinary research and education on complex, large-scale environmental systems. (more ...)

Elements of the WATERS Network
The WATERS Network will consist of the following elements:

1. A network of highly instrumented field facilities for acquisition and analysis of environmental data
2. An environmental cyberinfrastructure that provides data archives, collaboration and networking among community members, and information technology for engineering modeling, analysis, and visualization of data
3. Multidisciplinary synthesis of research and education to exploit instrumented sites and networked information; formulate engineering and policy options to protect, remediate, and restore stressed environments and promote sustainable environmental resources
4. A measurement facility that assists with and provides training on sensor deployments, measurement campaigns, and sensor development

NCSA CyberCollaboratory
The CyberCollaboratory is a collaborative space where communities of researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers, and others come together to share knowledge and information, analyze data, solve problems, and collaborate on publications. The CLEANER Project Office is using the CyberCollaboratory to support over 100 researchers and educators engaged in WATERS Network planning.
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Latest News

CLEANER Meetings: Complete Listing

All information regarding CLEANER meetings will be posted here.

CLEANER Quarterly Update--September 2006 is out

CLEANER Quarterly Update (March 2006)

Included in this update: Research Study on Cyberinfrastructure, WATERS Network: A CLEANER-CUAHSI Joint Initiative, CLEANER Science Plan Update, CLEANER/WATERS Network Timeline, Meet CLEANER Executive Director Jami Montgomery

Please Participate in Cyberinfrastructure Survey (deadline extended)

You are invited to participate in a University of Illinois/University of Michigan research study of how cyberinfrastructure can support the needs of the environmental engineering and hydrologic science research community.

Second CLEANER All-Hands Meeting

The Second CLEANER All-Hands Meeting will be held on March 7-8th, 2006 in Arlington, Virginia.

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