Informatics and Modeling

One of the Center's primary objectives is to establish a health and environmental database accessible to all sectors. It is the role of the informatics program to carry out this function for the Center by developing and implementing information management systems. The informatics program includes formal systems for data archival and documentation that facilitate analyses and accurate interpretations. Commercial relational data base management systems (RDBMS) are one component of the program. For example, the lung and whole body counting system uses an integrated RDBMS for data collection and storage. A Microsoft™ Access data base is used to store environmental monitoring data  (aerosol, soil, drinking water, surface water and sediment) collected by the field sampling program.

The Center operates Sun and Dell servers running Unix to provide network services, such as file sharing, electronic mail, and automatic daily backup to the Windows and UNIX computers in the Center. The Center also operates a DEC Alpha workstation running OpenVMS, which provides the computational support for the lung and whole body counting system.

The research activities of the informatics program include developing methods for linking data to simulation models, and investigations on representing uncertainty when incorporating analytical data in models. Center staff are collaborating with researchers at Colorado State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Risk Assessment Corporation to help develop tools for geospatial analysis of LANL’s environmental monitoring data (http://www.racernm.com/tools/tools.php). In addition to this research, the IM group is helping to develop a web-accessible database of LANL’s environmental monitoring data (http://racerdb.nmsu.edu).  IM staff are also participating in Sandia National Laboratories’ Performance Assessment program for recertifying that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is compliant with federal laws regulating potential releases from the facility (http://www.nwmp.sandia.gov/wlp/factsheets/wipp.pdf).