This was the fifth in the series of successful Forums on geoscience information management that have been held in Canberra since 1993. With the growing use of the Internet for access and delivery of data and services, it was timely to address issues relating to the provision of geoscience online. 2001 will see the implementation of the Federal Government's online policy. AGSO along with state geological agencies will present their online data delivery initiatives. The Forum included a range of speakers dealing with the online delivery of spatial geoscience data, from geoscience-related vendors through to the latest developers in web technology. The geoscience sector is on the cusp of taking full advantage of the potential of online delivery. Over the past 5 years most government agencies have been improving their data management practices and cleaning up their datasets, leading to a situation where the "backend" is in good shape. Some have begun to implement online delivery and eCommerce systems (GIS, image processing and database access) but uptake is uneven across the sector and such systems generally only deliver the lower volume, less commercially sensitive datasets. In the private sector we have begun to see the emergence of commercial data management consultants who are providing web based access to their clients, and, within the larger companies, some sophisticated intrAnet solutions have been put in place. A small number of players are looking at providing online value-added services for clients like share market investors (mining/petroleum shares). This Forum provided the opportunity to find out the latest trends and developments in the exciting and growing area of internet and web technologies for the delivery of online information.

single page item on stratigraphy issues relevant to Australian geologists. This column discusses international discussions on the global stratotype section and point (GSSP) concept, new developments in stratigrphic classification and upcoming opportunities to showcase Australian examples in 2012. Journal ISSN 0312 4711

Geoscience data standards as a field of research may come as a surprise to many geoscientists, who probably think of it as a dull peripheral issue, of little relevance to their domain. However, the subject is gaining rapidly in importance as the information revolution begins to take hold, as ultimately billions of dollars worth of information are at stake. In this article we take a look at what has happened recently in this field, where we think it is heading, and AGSO's role in national geoscience standards.

With the increasing emphasis on electronic rather that paper products, the need for adequate metadata is becoming more and more pressing. The new AGSO Catalog is designed to address this problem at the corporate level. Developed from the AGSO Products Database, the AGSO Catalog is designed to encompass most of AGSOs outputs, datasets and resources. It does this with the help of various intranet and Web interfaces. Projects or authors must initiate Catalog entries, for without an acceptable metadata a product cannot be sold by the Sales Centre, or permission to publish will not be granted. The Catalog is the key to future systems of information distribution and sales. It will permit us to go directly from the metadata to the electronically stored objects, thus enabling automated information distribution and electronic commerce.

GeoSciML is the international standard for transfer of digital geological maps and relational database data. GeoSciML was developed over the past decade by the IUGS Commission for the Management and Application of Geoscience Information (CGI), and was adopted as an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard in June 2016. Ratification as an official OGC standard marked a coming of age for GeoSciML - it now meets the highest standards for documentation and current best practice for interoperable data transfer. GeoSciML is the preferred standard for geoscience data sharing initiatives worldwide, such as OneGeology, the European INSPIRE directive, the Australian Geoscience Portal, and the US Geoscience Information Network (USGIN). GeoSciML is also used by OGC's GroundwaterML data standard [1] and CGI's EarthResourceML standard [2]. Development of GeoSciML version 4 learnt considerably from user experiences with version 3.2, which was released in 2013 [3]. Although the GeoSciML v3 data model was conceptually sound, its XML schema implementation was considered overly complex for the general user. Version 4 developments focussed strongly on designing simpler XML schemas that allow data providers and users to interact with data at various levels of complexity. As a result, GeoSciML v4 provides three levels of user experience - 1. simple map portrayal, 2. GeoSciML-Basic for common age and lithology data for geological features, and 3. GeoSciML-Extended, which extends GeoSciML-Basic to deliver more detailed and complex relational data. Similar to GeoSciML v3, additional GeoSciML v4 schemas also extend the ISO Observations & Measurements standard to cover geological boreholes, sampling, and analytical measurements. The separate levels of GeoSciML also make it easier for software vendors to develop capabilities to consume relatively simple GeoSciML data without having to deal with the full range of complex GeoSciML schemas. Previously mandatory elements of GeoSciML, that were found to be overly taxing on users in version 3, are now optional in version 4. GeoSciML v4 comes with Schematron validation scripts which can be used by user communities to create profiles of GeoSciML to suit their particular community needs. For example, the European INSPIRE community has developed Schematrons for web service validation which require its users to populate otherwise-optional GeoSciML-Basic elements, and to use particular community vocabularies for geoscience terminology. Online assistance for data providers to use GeoSciML is now better than ever, with user communities such as OneGeology, INSPIRE, and USGIN providing user guides explaining how to create simple and complex GeoSciML web services. CGI also provides a range of standard vocabularies that can be used to populate GeoSciML data services. Full documentation and user guides are at www.geosciml.org.

Proceedings of the Second National Forum on GIS in the Geosciences, 29 - 31 March 1995, held at the National Library of Australia.

As interpretations of sequence stratigraphy are published in increasing numbers in the petroleum exploration literature, the potential for confusion also increases because there are no rules for the classification or naming of the identified sequences. At present it is difficult to apply databases and geographic information systems to sequence stratigraphy, particularly when organisations with different outlooks and approaches attempt to collaborate and merge their databases. Despite sequence stratigraphic concepts having been in the literature for over two decades, no scheme for standardisation has achieved consensus in the geoscientific community, either within Australia or internationally. Three areas in particular need to be agreed on: (1) how sequence units should be defined; (2) the hierarchy of those units, and on what basis; and (3) a standard scheme for naming units. The two basic ways of subdividing a succession into sequence units, the Vail-Exxon and Galloway methods, both rely on the enclosing boundaries being defined first. Various hierarchies of units have been proposed, in which there is often a clear desire to link the scale of sequence units to phases of geological evolution or stratal boundaries of different orders. In addition, most workers use informal names, but formal names are becoming more common. Consequently, it is essential that workable national guidelines be developed to ensure that communication and computer compatibility are not impeded.

Discussion of the uses made of the Australian Stratigraphic units database (ASUD), the sources of data to update it, and issues with maintaining quality. The importance of correct and consistent terminology, and the value of good reviews and editing are highlighted with examples.

Legacy product - no abstract available

GeoSciML v3 (www.geosciml.org) and EarthResourceML v2 (www.earthresourceml.org) are the latest releases of geoscience data transfer standards from the IUGS-CGI Interoperability Working Group (IWG). The data standards each comprise a UML model and complex features GML schemas, extending the spatial standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), including GML v3.2, O&M v2, and SWE Common v2. Future development of GeoSciML and EarthResourceML will occur under a collaborative IUGS-OGC arrangement. GeoSciML covers a wide range of geological data, including geological units, structures, earth materials, boreholes, geomorphology, petrophysical properties, and sampling and analytical metadata. The model was refactored from a single application schema in version 2 into a number of smaller, more manageable schemas in version 3. EarthResourceML covers solid earth resources (mineral occurrences, resources and reserves) and their exploitation (mines and mining activities). The model has been extended to accommodate the requirements of the EU INSPIRE data sharing initiative, seeing the addition of mineral exploration activity and environmental aspects (ie, mining waste) to the model. GeoSciML-Portrayal is a simple-features GML application schema based on a simplified core of GeoSciML. It supports presentation of geological map units, contacts, and faults in Web Map Services, and provides a link between simple-feature data delivery and more complex GeoSciML WFS services. The schema establishes naming conventions for fields commonly used to symbolize geological maps to enable visual harmonization of map services. The IWG have established a vocabulary service at http://resource.geosciml.org, serving geoscience vocabularies in RDF-SKOS format. Vocabularies are not included in GeoSciML and EarthResourceML, but the models recommend a standard pattern to reference controlled vocabularies using HTTP-URI links. GeoSciML and EarthResourceML have been adopted or recommended as the data exchange standards in key international interoperability initiatives, including OneGeology, the INSPIRE project, the US Geoscience Information Network, and the Australia/NZ Government Geoscience Information Committee.