Notre Dame breaking ground on environmental center

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SOUTH BEND — The University of Notre Dame is breaking ground on a $1 million environmental research center at a northern Indiana park.

The university is leasing 28 acres at St. Patrick's Park in St. Joseph County for a field-based environmental research facility. It will allow Notre Dame scientists, student researchers, visiting scholars and other academic institutions to study the interrelationships of land, water and wetland ecologies in the face of environmental change.

Notre Dame plans to provide an on-site program manager who will help local educators develop curricula for schools.

The Notre Dame Linked Experimental Ecosystem Facility will use sensor technology to monitor experiments in real time, allowing students and community members to monitor conditions through the Internet.

The groundbreaking was set for Friday.