Why a virtual water science lab?

Why a virtual water science lab?

Many of my colleagues recently asked me what are the good reasons to put efforts into a virtual water science lab, and why a researcher should decide to work in it.
This is indeed a good question: developing a virtual laboratory takes time and researchers do not have much resources today (where resources also include time).

My reply to the above question is simple: a virtual lab gives the enormous opportunity to share tools and data, and to share resources, by giving the chance to develop cooperative work and to compare the results.

Hydrology is now developing at an amazing pace, by embracing a broader view. We need to go beyond the single catchment, we need to plan water resources management at global scale. Transferring water is now much simpler than in the past, the virtual water trade gives the means to more efficiently share water resources. However, the study of water challenges at large spatial and temporal scales needs to be supported by an enormous amount of information: we need data across national boundaries, we need to share the expertise of researchers working in different countries in order to be able to acquire knowledge of local conditions over large spatial scales. Data need to be shared and therefore data must be open, and tools, like software and protocols for scientific investigation, also need to be shared.

The ideal place where data and tools can be shared is a virtual lab, where researchers can easily get together and join information and resources. In this way reproducibility and repeatability are also ensured.

Working in a virtual lab requires a paradigm shift: one needs to forget the temptation to work alone, and to overcome the unavoidable barriers which one encounters when a different working approach is adopted.

While setting up the Switch-On virtual lab I realized the potential of sharing data and information, the potential of comparing the results and discussing with colleagues the protocols of scientific investigation and the results.

Setting up and maintaining a virtual lab requires dedication. Open data need to equipped with metadata, and tools need to be made available in a form that makes the use by others easy. The goal of the Switch-On virtual lab is now attracting external users, by sharing research question and discussing possible solutions. By using the forum of the virtual lab, we get a sort of preliminary review process. It takes more time than working alone, but the experiment turns out to be more rigorous, repeatable, and the results are better presented.

We need the help any interested colleague. Please do not hesitate to ask us information on the experiments that we are carrying out, to send us critical comments in order to make the lab more accessible, and to submit research questions to be discussed with us. We will be very pleased to entertain a scientific forum with you.

Do you want to know more? Please see the paper that came from the first cooperative experiment in the Switch-On virtual lab. See also the status report of our current experiments. And Join the Switch-On virtual lab!

Alberto Montanari

Welcome

Welcome to the SWITCH-ON Virtual Water Science Laboratory Discussion Forum.


Please, comment on posts, engage with hydrological scientists, and discuss working with our Virtual Water Science Laboratory.