 of how the myriad ways that human dynamics are coupled with physical and ecological dynamics in the long run that's going to change. So let's mingle and talk and listen to each other, and I look forward to seeing what you think about that. I'm going to go over to Greg to get us started. OK, great. Thanks, Brad. And welcome, everybody, to Boulder, Colorado. A, B, and Justin. So I should say that we have, in addition to those of us here in person today, we have, I don't know how many people are signed on online, but I think we had, what, 30 or 40 registered to participate online. So for that reason, when we do a question-and-answer session, we're going to use microphones so that those folks are connecting remotely from across the planet and hear the conversation. OK, so while Chad does this, I'm going to say a few words, just a few words of welcome. I do want to say a few words about what makes this particular meeting somewhat unique and what are the aims and focuses for these next three days. So we're fortunate this year, which as some of you know is a transition year for CSDMS, to have support from the National Science Foundation's Pre-Events program. So Pre-Events is a program that is designed to support research into extreme events and natural hazards, both from the viewpoint of ultimately being able to predict and understand hazards mechanistically and the viewpoint of being able to live resiliently on a planet that presents hazards to us. So one of the key aims of this meeting, as Brad said, is going to be to, really, to explore together what is the state of the art in using computational models to understand hazards and to live resiliently with them. So we can sort of diagram that concept. I think we can diagram the concept if I can advance the slide. OK, so while somebody thinks about how to advance the slide, I'm going to try to give you a mental picture. Picture three circles. I can picture them very well, because I can see them. There's a circle called natural hazards. There's a circle called Earth-Surface Dynamics. And connecting with both of those is a circle that is computational modeling. And that's OK. I can talk this through. So. Well, we haven't been burned or buried or anything yet, so it's all good. There are the circles. So when we think about natural hazards, as opposed to technological hazards, thank you. We think about things that are worse, that slide's not advancing. We think about issues of vulnerability. How do we measure vulnerability? How do we map it? How do we measure vulnerability? How do we measure vulnerability? How do we map it? How do we quantify it? How do we model it? We think about issues of resilience, of assessing risk, of mitigation, of planning for potential future disasters, of responding to past disasters, and so on. On the other hand, when we think about Earth-Surface Dynamics, often the focus is on the process and the product that that process creates. So we're interested in understanding the bathymetry, the topography, the sediments of the Earth-Surface. We're interested in the processes that shape those. So landslides, free flows, river processes, coastal dynamics, offshore deep marine processes, volcanic processes, and so on. So there's an obvious synergy between these two views of the world in several ways. And for one thing, geomorphic processes in some instances are the primary hazard. So you think about landslides. Or you think about volcanic processes. They are changing the shape of the Earth, even as they're presenting us with hazards that we need to live with. There are other cases where the hazard, the primary hazard, is accompanied by some kind of geomorphic process. So think, for example, of cosismic landsliding, where the earthquake also triggers landslides that blocks roads and damages infrastructure, and so on. Or think about floods, where a consequence is often not just water and stuff getting wet, which is an instance, but it's also about sediment being moved. And that movement of sediment can undermine roadways. It can vary areas in mud and silt, and therefore compound the damage. Then there are cases where the primary hazard isn't necessarily a geomorphic one, but it may set the stage for accelerated geomorphic activity. So here a classic example is wildfires, right, where the ground is made vulnerable to rapid erosion. So each of these kind of hazards and each of these kinds of processes, obviously one of the key kinds of tool in the toolkit, as Brad mentioned, is computational modeling. So we use models as communities, we use them in a wide variety of ways from exploring basic ideas and visualizing dynamics all the way through the more sort of pragmatic applications, like using models in a planning context, a scenario assessment mode, or even ultimately, if we understand the processes well enough to be able to do some kind of forecasting or prediction. So of course this is a good moment to be thinking about modeling earth surface processes and their role as hazards. In the course of my career, we've gone as a community from a data drought to in many ways a data deluge. We have increasingly wide in extent and high in resolution data sets that measure the earth's surface and its changes through time, right? So we can now actually realistically begin to think about how does a river change before and after a flood, topographic? What is the evolution of a coastline look like? This image on your right of part of the Cape Cod seashore from Chris Sherwood actually is an example of one new emerging technology, drone imaging that some of you signed up for Chris's clinic are going to learn about in real time, so to speak. So we think there's much to learn by bringing together a lens on computational modeling together with a hazards perspective and an earth surface dynamic. So in terms of today's and the next couple of days meeting the format consists of a variety of different things. We're going to start off with a set of keynote talks that are designed to cover the problem from different angles and from the perspective of different kinds of processes. We're going to have breakout group discussions following that. We're going to have a set of poster sessions this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon, and we're going to do clinics. So those of you who may be new to the idea of a clinic, this is a two-hour block of time in which you get to have a hands-on experience working with some particular technology or tool or data set or technique. Incidentally, I'm just out of curiosity. How many of you, this is your first time at a CSDMS hosted meeting? Awesome. And how many of you have been to previous systems annual meetings? Perfect. That's what we're looking for. So let me say that there's a couple of tangible products that we're hoping to get out of meeting this week. One of them is we would like to create a white paper. And the idea here is that we want to try to capture the conversation and the ideas presented here during this week in a document that stands as a record and that can be used by ourselves as members of the community as a sort of a record of what the community thinks are some of the key knowledge gaps and some of the key opportunities. It can also be used, for example, by funding agencies as a sort of a signpost toward what these communities feel are their most important priorities and knowledge gaps and needs and so on. So that's the idea. We're looking to pinpoint new frontiers in process understanding to identify needs, develop strategies to make our models better and to identify key knowledge gaps. So the raw materials for this white paper will come from our breakout group discussions. So thank you in advance to the note takers and the group leaders. And, you know, you may ask, okay, well, who's actually going to write this thing? And the answer I hope is you or at least some of you. So seriously, everybody here is invited, if you're interested, to participate in the white paper crafting process, turning these notes into pros over the course of the summer. If you are interested in doing that, there will be various opportunities to signal that interest and get involved. One way is to email CSDMS at colorado.edu. Another way is to speak to Albert Kettner. Albert Kettner here, who's going to be coordinating the white paper process. So we encourage everybody to participate in that. We may even reach out to a few of you to encourage you very strongly. Okay, so that's one product. The second product that we're hoping will come of this, if there's sufficient interest, is a special issue of a journal. So the sort of tentative working theme here is on the role of models in understanding hazards and improving risk assessment. And we're thinking that a reasonable venue for this would be the EGU journal, Natural Hazards in Earth System Science. We think we probably need about 15 as a minimum contributions to make this fly. And we'll be following up with email over the summer to try to coordinate that effort with an eye tour trying to get expressions of interest, at least by about mid-August. If you know already that you might be interested in this, please let us know, again, either by speaking to Albert in person or by sending an email to csdms at colorado.edu. Okay, so that's about this meeting. Then I just want to say a few words about CSDMS since many of you are new to the organization. So CSDMS, the acronym Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System, we're an organization that promotes computational modeling of Earth surface processes or broadly expanded planetary surface processes. And our aim is to do that by providing support for community activities like this one for computing technology and for education. If you, by the way, those letters, if you say it with a soft C and sort of a hard D, it sounds like systems, systems. So you sometimes hear people refer to it as systems. And then sometimes I get email that say systems SYS. That's what it is. I'll just give you a few highlights from activities over the past year. In terms of community, our membership continues to grow. So we've been growing at about 150 new members per year past several years. So we're up to about 1700 members. Welcome, new members. One recent highlight was that a month ago here in Boulder, we held a workshop co-sponsored with our sister organization which is called CIG, the sort of tectonics equivalent of CSDMS. This is a theme of coupled modeling of tectonics and surface processes. Some of you here were there then. So thank you for your enthusiasm in coming to two meetings in the same month. So look for a white paper coming out of that workshop in the next couple months. We continue to support the model repository. This is a place where you can put your favorite code on the web or for your colleagues to share and use. And you can add metadata. You can attach a DOI to your model if you like. We'll even track an each index for your model if you're interested in that. So those are a few community highlights. In terms of computing, we continue to support the system modeling framework, which many of you have used, and the packages that build on that like the web modeling tool and the Python modeling tool. PyMT is continuing to be developed. Some of you saw a demo last year. We now have a more efficient pathway to get your C and C++ codes to operate as Python components. Anybody has a C or C++ code that you're interested in making into a component, come see us and we can help you. Another technological highlight we have as some of you know, transitioned now from the old CSTMS supercomputer beach to a new system called Blanca. So Blanca is actually a shared system. It's a University of Colorado research computing facility in which CSTMS has invested in a couple of nodes. So our members, you all, have priority access to those nodes, but can use others' nodes on the system if need be at a lower priority. And others on the system can use CSTMS nodes at a lower priority when they need to. So it's a shared resource model. We hope to add more nodes over the coming year. So stay tuned for info on that. In the education realm, we continue to support the education and knowledge transfer repository that contains materials developed by members of the community, including many people here. A couple of recent additions to that. I won't list all of these, but Nicole Gasperini and colleagues have provided a new set of notebook tutorials about land lab modeling. And some of you will look at those in a clinic later this week. Irina Overame and colleagues have provided a set of teaching notebooks on cold regions and permafrost modeling. We have a new barrier, barrier island and marsh evolution model with teaching material, accompanying it from Rebecca Lausanne and Brad Murray. There's pre and post lab survey material to accompany web modeling tool plus ROMs, the regional ocean modeling system. So lots of good stuff on that. One other new thing that you may have seen is we've started to do quarterly software releases accompanied by short newsletters. Some of you received this first inaugural newsletter earlier this month, so this is a good, this is a source to learn about little technological innovations, new software products, and so on. And hopefully long enough to be interesting, but short enough not to allow you to get too impatient. Okay, another thing I want to do is I want to thank our supporting organization. So I mentioned support from NSF for this meeting through pre-events. I also want to acknowledge this network who have helped to support some of the attendees of this meeting. Welcome, Sen. You'll have a chance to learn a little bit more about what they're about tomorrow night at the banquet. And also, new partners this year, the Polar Research Coordination Network, RCN, who have sent half a dozen of their folks to come and join us this week. Thank you and welcome. Let's see. Another thing I should say is awards. So normally at CSDMS annual meetings, we offer a number of awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, Program Directors Award. This being sort of a special meeting and a transitional period, we're not doing those two awards this year, but look for them to come back next year. We will, however, be awarding the Savitsky Student Modeler Award. This year's awardee is Julio Hoffman. We'll have from Stanford University, and we'll have an opportunity to honor Julio tomorrow night at the banquet. This is a keynote talk later this afternoon. Also at the banquet, you'll get to find out who is the winner of the Best Poster Award, which you also get to vote for. So you'll learn more about how to vote later this afternoon for the poster session. Okay. Lastly, a round of thanks to the CSDMS integration facility team and associates who are pictured here. So putting on a meeting like this is a tremendous amount of work, a lot that's gone on behind the scenes, a lot of folks are responsible for making it happen. I want to in particular single out, first of all, the efforts of Lynn McCready, who's in many ways the coordinator and maestro of this meeting. Where is Lynn? She's out maestroing. Okay. Thank you, Lynn. If anybody has... So if anyone has logistical needs, Lynn is the maestro to see. I also want to in particular thank Albert Kettner, the PI on the award that is funding this meeting. So thank you, Albert. And thank you to the entire team. I will point out especially that the systems integration facility team have also the benefactors for the beer that you're going to enjoy over posters this afternoon and tomorrow. So you can thank a systems integration facility person when you see them. Okay. That's almost all I have. One logistical note. So those of you who are doing Chris Sherwood's clinic this afternoon on... Sorry, the clinic is... Clinic is Wednesday, but there will be a drone flight at lunch today to collect the data that you'll use during the clinic. You don't have a lot of time to do this. The flight location is going to be an unfortunately somewhat boring piece of topography called print-up field, which is about a 10-minute walk in that direction. So you'll have to kind of move quickly during lunch. Chris, where and when do you want people to gather for that? Okay. So after lunch, gather on the patio for a walkover at about one. Okay. That's about all I have. I want to now turn the floor over to...