GRIDA3 (Shared Resources Manager for Environmental Data Analysis and Applications) is an interdisciplinary project funded by the Italian Research Ministry (Prog. n. 1433/2006 MIUR FAR D.Lvo 297/99). Designed to provide a holistic description of environmental problems and practical answers to questions of central importance, the project will result in an advanced problem-solving tool for the integration, through a computing portal, of human know-how, simulation software, instrumentation and resources for data communication, storage, visualization, and computation. The project will supply a Grid infrastructure for collaborative work, built for the sharing of data and applications located at multiple sites across federated domains, public and private.

The extent and the complexity of environmental problems and their consequences on the ecosystem, human health and economic development make an integrated, cross-disciplinary approach necessary to increase the technical knowledge and public awareness, to support the management of natural resources and to develop a systematic change in land uses. To cite some of the environmental challenges addressed by the project, consider the constant increase of contaminated sites, the non-rational use of natural resources, and the hydro-geological risk related to meteorological extreme events and climate variability. To tackle these complex problems in environmental science and engineering the Grid approach is emerging worldwide as a formidable tool allowing to provision a computational task with administratively-distant resources. Thus, Grid computing reflects a conceptual framework rather than a physical resource.

The project started on July 1st, 2006 and funded for 42 months (3.5 years). The kick-off meeting of the project took place on November 28, 2006, at Polaris, the Scientific and Technological Park of Sardinia based in Pula (Cagliari, Italy). The event was the opportunity to illustrate the base elements of the project, roles and planned activities. This meeting included, in addition to the members of the development team, potential users, many of them with a leadership role in the achievement of the environmental policy in Sardinia.

The final GRIDA3 workshop was held at CRS4 on November 18, 2011.

GRIDA3 is a challenge crossing the many facets of environmental sciences, applied mathematics, computation and ICT. It has required not only the overall understanding of natural processes and mastery in the domain of information technology, but also the ability to gather research teams, software developers and environmental protection organizations to focus the final result onto a bouquet of plausible industrial web services accessible by means of the GRIDA3 grid portal.

GRIDA3 has paved the way for the successful participation of CRS4 to EC initiatives for supporting data-centric applications and processes in the field of environmental engineering with projects devised to operate a change of paradigm that certainly benefits the most from Grid/Cloud services.

Partners: CRS4, NICE and the University of Cagliari (CINSA, DIGITA, DISTER, and DIT)