RMMC during the quarter began defining hardware specifications for procuring another 16-node Beowulf PC Cluster. Objective of the procurement is to have a modeling platform that can accommodate SLEUTH data input arrays larger than 3000-by-3000 cells. Mark Feller reconfigured RMMC's existing AMD Athlon 16-node Beowulf PC Cluster parallel-processing environment to increase each node's total memory to 1GB as well as to increase the system's swap space to 2GB in order to handle larger SLEUTH data input array sizes.

SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta calibration (i.e., urbanized area only) was executed for the Front Range Infrastructure Resources Project (Denver) using the full-resolution (1609 X 2776 array) input GIF images. The Denver calibration run took approximately 6.5 days to complete execution on the 16-node Beowulf PC Cluster. A Front Range 2020 urban area landscape forecast was modeled using the SLEUTH 03.00.03 Beta release and the full-resolution data inputs. The SLEUTH landscape prediction for Denver executed 100 Monte Carlo iterations and took 7.5 hours to complete on the 16-node Beowulf PC Cluster. During the quarter, RMMC provided the Front Range Infrastructure Resources Project with the 2020 urban area forecast for distribution to the Denver Regional Council of Governments and the Colorado State Legislature.

During the quarter, Dave Hester presented the scientific capabilities of the USGS National Landscape Change Analysis (NALCA) Program at the USGS Coal Bed Methane (CBM) Workshop. RMMC staff participated in a USGS-BLM CBM Meeting held June 21, 2001 in Fort Collins to discuss scientific research requirements related to CBM production.

As part of investigating landscape change and associated environmental impacts in the USGS Central Region, Dave Hester participated as a Geography Discipline representative in the USGS Edwards-Trinity Aquifer Meeting held May 22, 2001 in Austin, Texas. After the Edwards-Trinity Aquifer Meeting, Dave Hester met with the University of Texas-Austin: Department of Community and Regional Planning and the City of Austin: Planning Department to discuss collaboration on researching landscape change for the Austin-San Antonio urban corridor.

At the request of Scott Minor, GD, RMMC reviewed and provided comments concerning NMD's involvement in researching landscape change for the FY02 Espanola Basin, New Mexico Project being proposed for National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program funding.