The Enviro.wiki design is similar to Wikipedia with short ‘encyclopedia’ type summaries of current information. However, the content is written and peer-reviewed by experts to assure its validity and copy-edited to improve content presentation and accessibility to non-experts. Article references, SERDP & ESTCP project reports, and other credible documents are linked to each article for easy reference.

This project will follow the current wiki format and development process. Individual articles are approximately 5 to 8 written pages long with a few figures and tables, 10 to 30 references, and links to SERDP & ESTCP projects and related content. Articles are solicited from recognized experts in the field, many of whom have already written similar content for SERDP & ESTCP. Article drafts are reviewed and edited by both an internal technical writer and a member of the editorial board. The article is then revised by the author(s) based on the review-based feedback and returned to the wiki team to be re-evaluated and eventually formatted and posted. Internal staff deals with author-editor communications, formatting the content for upload, compiling reference information, handling graphics issues, and linking to online resources. Once the final document is uploaded, the author(s) proof and approve the final product. The team will use MediaWiki, the free open source wiki package written in Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) (www.mediawiki.org) originally developed for use on Wikipedia, to provide a stable and scalable environment.

SERDP and ESTCP have supported an extensive portfolio of projects that substantially improves our understanding of subsurface processes and the effectiveness of different remediation approaches. While the results of this work are readily accessible, the primary distribution pathway for SERDP & ESTCP results is the program website (https://www.serdp-estcp.org/). At this site, one may search for different research reports and project summaries. However, these searches often generate 100s of results that require a significant amount of time to find the needed information. This process drastically reduces the benefits of SERDP & ESTCP supported research and increases the costs of managing DoD’s environmental issues.

Our project will make prior SERDP and ESTCP-funded research much more readily available to professionals at all levels. This project directly expands and enhances a well-suited vehicle (a Wikipedia-like platform) for technology transfer that will provide significant cost saving to DoD over the short and long-term.

The overall objective of this project is to accelerate the transfer of research supported by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP), and other organizations to junior and mid-level personnel (consultants, Department of Defense [DoD] professionals, and regulators) that actually perform most of the work on these facilities. Specific objectives include:

1. Adding new articles and topics to the renamed Enviro.wiki, expanding its topical coverage and depth of knowledge, and making the results of SERDP & ESTCP supported research more accessible to DoD project managers and regulators.
2. Improve the quality of existing articles by adding more visuals (i.e., short [2-3 min] videos, illustrative graphics), expanding the technical content, and providing updates to ensure the articles remain current.
3. Ensure the information presented is complete, accurate, and objective.
4. Advertise the Enviro.wiki to encourage contributions and accelerate its use as a resource through emails, tweets, LinkedIn posts, presentations/conferences and other methods.