[beachnet] Learn to use Virtual Beach: Training Workshop, Oct 1, at the State of Lake Michigan and Great Lakes Beach Association Joint Conference

Learn to use Virtual Beach
Training Workshop – October 1st, 2009

Beach managers and other interested parties are invited to participate in a hands-on workshop on EPA’s Virtual Beach - Model Builder.  This software can be used to build and run statistical models to predict concentrations of pathogen indicators in real-time, based on meteorological, onshore, and near shore conditions.

The workshop will take place on Thursday, October 1st at the 2009 Joint State of Lake Michigan / Great Lakes Beach Association Conference in Milwaukee (http://aqua.wisc.edu/SOLM) and will be conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In this workshop you will be introduced to the software and receive hands-on training through a real-world case study.  Training will be conducted in two sessions:

    I   Introduction, Data Input, and Model Building -- 8:30-10:40 am
    II. Model Evaluation and Nowcasting -- 1:00-3:00 pm

Register on-line
Click HERE<https://doa.wi.gov/DNRSurveys/TakeSurvey.aspx?PageNumber=1&SurveyID=382>* to register for the Virtual Beach workshop.  You will be asked to answer a few short questions that will help us tailor the workshop to the audience.  There is no extra charge for the workshop but you must also register for the State of Lake Michigan and Great Lakes Beach Association Conference (Register now<http://aqua.wisc.edu/SOLM/Default.aspx?tabid=59>).

The deadline for workshop registration is Tuesday September 15th.  There are a limited number of seats for the session, so please register as soon as possible.  The workshop will be an opportunity to learn about and test the software, and to provide valuable feedback to its developers.

About Virtual Beach†
A common approach to evaluating beach water quality has been to use the persistence model which assumes that day-old monitoring results provide accurate estimates of current concentrations. This model is frequently incorrect. Recent studies have shown that statistical regression models based on least-squares fitting often are more accurate. To make such models more generally available, the Virtual Beach (VB) tool was developed. VB is public domain software that prescribes site-specific predictive models.


* URL for on-line registration: https://doa.wi.gov/DNRSurveys/TakeSurvey.aspx?PageNumber=1&SurveyID=382

† From:  Frick, Walter E., Zhongfu Ge, and Richard G. Zepp. 2008. “Nowcasting and Forecasting Concentrations of Biological Contaminants at Beaches: A Feasibility and Case Study.” Environmental Science and Technology, Volume 42, Number 13. Pages: 4818-4824


For more information contact: Adam Mednick at Wisconsin DNR
Adam.Mednick at Wisconsin.gov / 608-261-6416



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