About DEMAC

The Delaware Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Center (DEMAC) is a center whose primary goals are

• to promote and coordinate environmental monitoring efforts throughout the State of Delaware and its surrounding environs and
• to provide an effective, user-friendly interface for researchers to share their findings with K-12, decision-makers, and the general public.

The Vision

The vision is that all Delaware EPSCoR partner institutions (listed below) will have access to high-quality inter- and intra-institutional cyberinfrastructure and centralized informatics capabilities that support leading-edge research, education and outreach in the EPSCoR focus areas of environmental science and biotechnology.

Higher-Ed Partners:

• University of Delaware (UD),
• Delaware State University (DSU),
• Wesley College, and
• Delaware Technical & Community College (DTCC)

The RII C2 program significantly enhances the Global Climate Change partnership with Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

Goals

Delaware's RII C2 program has the following four goals:

1. Close gaps in key intra-campus network systems at UD, DSU, Wesley, and DTCC
2. Catalyze the development of a statewide Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Center (DEMAC): Hire an environmental informatics specialist, coordinate data collection from diverse sources, organize and host workshops to enable DEMAC center usage.
3. Promote broader based education in spatial technologies and support workforce training
4. Enhance cyber-based environmental outreach targeting under-represented urban populations (Delaware Nature Society)

DEMAC's initiatives primarily address Goasl 2, 3, and 4 listed above. With the hiring of the Environmental Informatics Specialist completed in August 2011, DEMAC is focused on building applications that will:

• ingest data from diverse environmental sensing platforms
• store data in a logical, accessible database structure and provide support for Delaware EPSCoR partners
• make data accessible in real-time via web-based interface (Delaware EPSCoR partners)
• visualize complex spatial and temporal information and disseminate data in GIS format

In an effort to support Goals 3 and 4 above, DEMAC is working with the Delaware Geographic Alliance (DGA), Delaware Geographic Data Committee (DGDC), Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN), and other coordinating centers to disseminate information and data. Educational workshops and events will be forthcoming.