Scientists within Geoscience Australia (GA) create complex 3D models of geological structures, using specialised 3D modelling software. Very few people outside of GA have access to this specialised software. To provide clients and stakeholders with access to 3D information GA has developed VRML-HTML-JavaScript interfaces. These interfaces allow GA to share large volumes of complex 3D geological information via the Web, with data volumes up to 22 MB. A number of methods are employed to allow users to interact with such large amounts of data. The geometric features within VRML are used to represent a wide range of geological features. The interfaces are user friendly and provide users with a high level of interaction with the complex information.

Advances in computer technology have provided the opportunity to present geoscience information in new and innovative ways. The use of web-based three-dimensional interactive models, animations and fly-throughs significantly enhances our ability to communicate complex geometries and concepts not only to the geoscientific community but also, just as importantly, to the general public. Projects within Geoscience Australia currently use a range of GIS, remote sensing, and modelling packages for visualisation of fundamental and derived data. In the main each of these packages also has the ability to produce, as an output, some form of model or animation sequence displaying the results of the visualisation. In most cases however, these outputs are generally not of sufficient quality or do not provide adequate functionality without further processing or editing. Geoscience Australia has adopted a multi-disciplinary approach to 3D visualisation encompassing cartography, GIS, remote sensing, graphic design, programming, web, and video editing to the post-processing of these visualisations. This paper examines the benefits of using models and movies for the visualisation of geoscience and briefly discusses the current workflows and presentation techniques used by the Geo-Visualisation team within Geoscience Australia.

The regular release of offshore acreage is a key part of the Australian Government's strategy to encourage investment in petroleum exploration. This CD product contains six interactive 3D VRML models of the 2007 acreage release areas and was created for distribution at the 2007 APPEA conference and for later distribution via the web.

This web service provides access to the National Dam Walls dataset and presents the spatial locations of major dam walls located within Australia, all complemented with feature attribution.

This web service provides access to the National Desalination Plants dataset and presents the spatial locations of all the known major desalination plants within Australia, all complemented with feature attribution.

The service contains the 2013 Earthquake Hazard map, as a raster and contours. This map shows the peak ground acceleration (response spectral period of 0.01 seconds) on rock expected for a 500 year return period, in units of g, evaluated for the geometric mean of the horizontal components. The map is the closest in return period and response spectral period to the current earthquake hazard map in the Australian Standard AS1170.4-2007

This web service provides access to the National Judicial Courts dataset and presents the spatial locations of all the known Australian High Courts, Australian Federal Courts and the Australian Federal Circuit Courts located within Australia, all complemented with feature attribution.

Geographic extent: The study area covers Woody Island and the surrounding seabed, located approximately 15 km SE of the town of Esperance in Western Australia . Contents: Reson TM Seabat 8125 multibeam sonar data and associated backscatter intensity, sediment grab sample and core location data, Quickbird satellite imagery. Data Source: The visualisation contains data aquired as part of the Coastal CRC's Coastal Water Habitat Mapping project, during 2003 - 2005. Size: The total size of the model and all associated files is 2.7Mb. The initial download for the base HTML documents and the Woody Island surface is 970Kb.

X3D Earth is a planned virtual globe application from the Web3D Consortium. It will differ from Google Earth (GE) (and other existing virtual globes) in the following ways: it will use an existing open source standard 3D file format (X3D); be truly 3D (most other virtual globes do not currently handle sub-surface data); allow distributed storage of the 3D data; and allow agencies such as GA to create and distribute their own data. One motivation for developing X3D Earth is to provide a mechanism for long term and open access to public 3D geospatial data. Development is planned for 2006/07. This whitepaper is Geoscience Australia's contribution to the X3D Earth requirements workshop, November 2006.

This web service provides access to the National Wastewater Treatment Facilities dataset and presents the spatial locations of all the known wastewater treatment facilities within Australia, all complemented with feature attribution.