RMMC during the quarter moved an 8-node AMD Athlon Beowulf PC Cluster to the Information Technology Research (ITR) Lab due to lack of power in the RMMC main computer room. Regina Peyfuss, Orkand, assisted Mark Feller in installing LAM/MPI Sys V version 6.2.3 and NFS on the ITR 8-node Beowulf PC Cluster.

During the quarter, RMMC compiled the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta release on the 8-node Beowulf PC Cluster. Compilation included using the LAM/MPI software for executing SLEUTH source code in a parallel-processing environment running the LINUX RedHat 6.2 operating system (OS). In addition, RMMC installed the XV utility for the LINUX OS on the Beowulf PC Cluster server in order to view input and output GIF images required and (or) generated by the SLEUTH model.

As part of testing the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta version on the 8-node Beowulf PC Cluster, RMMC encountered problems with the model's calibration and prediction processes hanging and (or) aborting under the LINUX OS. RMMC resolved the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta executable premature exits under the LINUX OS by ensuring that file and memory pointers were initialized prior to running the calibration or prediction processes.

SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta calibrations (i.e., urbanized area only) were executed for the Seattle Area Natural Hazards Project using 1/4^th resolution data inputs (1000 X 1200 array) and ½ resolution input GIF image arrays (2000 X 2400). The Seattle 1/4^th calibration run took 3 days to complete execution on the 8-node Beowulf PC Cluster, whereas, the Seattle ½ calibration run completed execution on the Cluster after 10 days of processing. As a comparative test, RMMC initiated a Seattle ½ calibration run on the SGI Origin 2000 server using only one CPU and benchmarked that the 8-node Beowulf PC Cluster required eight times less CPU hours than the SGI to execute the 100 iterations.

Ron Matheny, EPA, distributed to the Urban Growth and Land Use Modeling Work Group, the methodology he was using in SAS to identify the predictive phase "best-fit" growth control coefficients from the SLEUTH model's control_stats.log calibration metrics. Regina Peyfuss implemented within Excel, EPA's methodology of deriving a "product" statistic by multiplying the control_stats.log calibration metrics for population, edges, clusters, and size. During the quarter, Regina Peyfuss graphed the (13) control_stats.log metrics from the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta ½ calibration run for Seattle as well as the new EPA "product" statistic in order investigate collinearity between the different calibration metrics. The EPA "product" statistic methodology was applied by RMMC to select the "best-fit" growth control coefficients from the Seattle ½ calibration run to use for the Seattle 2025 and 2050 predictions.
Initial SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta predictive runs for Seattle under the LINUX OS did not produce anticipated results on the Beowulf PC Cluster. The GIF images output from the SLEUTH predictive phase for Seattle were essentially "text-mode" images. In order to resolve the LINUX OS GIF image output discrepancy, Mark Feller modified the GIF Draw (GD) 1.2 library C programs that create the output images.

Since the Seattle Area Natural Hazards Project did not collect temporal land use and land cover (LULC) data, RMMC attempted to model just an urbanized area forecast using the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta version. Preliminary SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta predictive executions on the 8-node Beowulf PC Cluster were unsuccessful in generating only an urban area forecast. RMMC traced the urban area prediction fault to the fact that the urbanization probability colormap parameter was being overwritten in memory by the subsequent initialization of the LULC colormap table variable. Consequently, RMMC swapped the definition sequence of the colormap parameters, so that the LULC variable was initialized prior to the urbanization probability parameter. RMMC debugged the SLEUTH 03.00.03 source code under the LINUX OS using the GNU debugger and Electric Fence as a means of investigating the application's memory leak. To validate the existence of a memory leak, RMMC executed a SLEUTH 03.00.03 urban area only forecast for Seattle on the SGI Origin 2000 server. The memory leak also occurs under the SGI operating system, however, the problem appears to be more random than what is occurring under the LINUX OS.

After addressing the GD 1.2 library and probability colormap memory leak faults under the LINUX OS, RMMC executed Seattle 2050 urbanized area forecasts using the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta release on the 8-node Beowulf PC Cluster. A Seattle 2050 urban area landscape was predicted using the 1/4^th resolution data inputs (i.e., 1000 X 1200 array) as well as with the ½ resolution inputs (i.e., 2000 X 2400 array). Each of the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta predictions for Seattle executed 100 Monte Carlo iterations and respectively took 10 - and 12-hours to complete on the 8-node Beowulf PC Cluster. During the quarter, RMMC provided the Seattle Area Natural Hazards Project with 2025 and 2050 urban area forecasts using the 2000 X 2400 array-size inputs. As part of the Seattle urban growth modeling effort, RMMC began to experiment with altering the probability of features identified in the excluded lands input layer.

At the request of Ron Matheny, EPA, Mark Feller provided a tar file of the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta source code that RMMC has modified and successfully executed under the LINUX Redhat 6.2 operating system on the 8-node AMD Athlon Beowulf PC Cluster.

Mark Feller during the quarter ported the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta source code to the SGI Origin 2000 Server using the MIPS/Pro compiler in order to take advantage of the Origin 2000's 4-CPU architecture for parallel-processing. In order to validate the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta installation on the SGI server, RMMC successfully executed calibration processes using the Demo City data (50 X 50 and 200 X 200 arrays). Regina Peyfuss and Mark Feller began investigating the use of the Parallel Virtual File System for optimizing the file input/output (I/O) between the Beowulf PC Cluster server and the slave nodes during execution of the SLEUTH model. During the quarter, Regina Peyfuss compiled the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta source code under the MOSIX operating system.

Under the EPA/USGS/UC-Santa Barbara Interagency Agreement, Ron Matheny, EPA has approved a guest user account, so that Mark Feller, RMMC, can execute the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta source code on EPA's CRAY platform.

During the quarter, Dave Hester organized the Land Surface Analysis Panel Session as well as chaired the Poster Session for the FY2001 USGS Urban Dynamics Science Workshop. Dave Hester, Mike Stier, and Rich Zirbes represented RMMC at the UD Science Workshop held January 29-31, 2001 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

As part of investigating urban growth and associated environmental impacts in the USGS Central Region Urban Mountain West (UMW) Focus Area, Dave Hester, Carol Mladinich, and Rich Zirbes participated as Geography Discipline representatives in the USGS UMW Science Team Kickoff Meeting held January 23-24, 2001. During the UMW Science Team meeting, Dave Hester presented the scientific capabilities of the USGS Urban Dynamics Research Program. The next meeting of the USGS UMW Science Team is scheduled for April 13, 2001.

At the request of Greg Hanscom, Associate Editor – High Country News (HCN), Dave Hester provided assistance in reviewing the HCN "Growth and Development" web page, http://www.hcn.org/misc/growth_.html, which incorporates the RMMC Land Surface Analysis web site as a hyperlink.