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.

NOTE: removed on request: 25 May 2016 by Sundaram Baskaran GWATER is a corporate database designed to accommodate a number of existing project groundwater and surface water data sets in AGSO. One of the aims in developing the database as a corporate repository is to enable sharing between AGSO projects allowing re-use of data sets derived from various sources such as the State and Territory water authorities. The database would also facilitate an easier exchange of data between AGSO and these authorities. This document presents an overview of the current structure of the database, and describes the present data entry and retrieval forms in some detail. Definitions of all tables and data fields contained within them are listed in an appendix. The database structure will not remain static. Future developments, such as the integration of data directly out of the database into geographic information systems, are expected to lead to modifications in the database structure with possible addition of new tables or fields. Use of GWATER by a range of project areas will undoubtedly lead to different needs in accessing the data, resulting in the request for further development of the data access tools.

It is impractical for a single agency in Australia to hold responsibility for maintaining a national landslide database. Geoscience Australia has successfully demonstrated the benefits of adopting information management strategies as one solution in bringing local, regional and national scale landslide data together. In the first time that networked service oriented interoperability has been applied to a natural hazards domain, Australia now has an up-to-date central landslide database that makes full use of diverse data across three levels of government . The approach is centred upon a 'common data model' that addresses aspects of landslides captured by different agencies. The methodology brings four distinct components together: a landslide application schema; a landslide domain model; web service implementations and a user interface. Sharing and exchanging data more efficiently through an interoperable approach ensures that full value is made of available information, and that responsibility for collecting and maintaining this data is shared across all agencies. Specific-purpose data not only continues to serve the needs of individual database custodians, but also now serves a broader need. Such a system establishes the foundation for a very powerful and coordinated information resource in Australia through its ability to collate and characterise large volumes of information, and provides a suitable basis for greater investment in data collection. At a minimum the pilot project provides Australia with a framework for a centralised national landslide inventory, which can connect other available landslide databases. There is also considerable capacity for this approach to provide State Governments with a simple way to compile and maintain their own state-wide databases, and to extend the approach across other natural hazard databases and integrate data from other domains.

Geoscience Australia (GA) produces geoscientific and geospatial data for the benefit of the Australian government and community, to inform public policy, to promote development of Australia's economy, to assist environmental management and to help manage and mitigate natural hazards. Users of GA's data want to know that data are produced to known standards using open and accountable processes and come from a unique and reliable source. Single Point of Truth (SPOT) is Geoscience Australia's standard for processes that produce data. The SPOT methodology describes a consistent approach to transforming an existing data theme into a SPOT. The same methodology can be used for developing a SPOT for a new data theme.

The Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO) presents its solutions to mapping and GIS on the Internet. Software used is based on commercial and open source products. A distributed web mapping system is demonstrated, and concepts of distributed web mapping discussed. Systems for online delivery of spatial data are also demonstrated. AGSO has been providing Internet access to spatial data since 1996. AGSO is the main repository for national geoscientific data, and services a wide range of clients across industry, government and the general public. Data provided range from point data, such as site descriptions and scientific analysis of samples, to line, polygon and grid data, such as geological and geophysical surveys and associated maps. AGSO currently holds 500 MB of GIS data and a similar amount of image data on its web site; these data are expected to expand to a number of terabytes over the next few years. A primary role of AGSO is to provide its data to clients and stakeholders in as efficient a way as possible, hence its choice of Internet delivery. The major obstacle for supplying data of large volume over the Internet is bandwidth. Many AGSO clients are in remote locations with low bandwidth connections to the Internet. Possible solutions to this problem are presented. Examples of AGSO web tools are available at http://www.agso.gov.au/map/

The International Forest Carbon Initiative, IFCI, is part of Australia's contribution to international efforts on reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. It focuses on technology transfer to developing countries by assisting them to implement national carbon accounting schemes modelled on that established by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. Key inputs to those accounting schemes are mosaics of the best available satellite scenes in a given year. Collections of these mosaics, spanning periods of at least a decade, are used to determine changes to the extent and type of forest cover. Those characterisations are used to determine net forest carbon flux, which is a significant component of overall carbon flows in tropical countries. In support of these activities, Geoscience Australia manages a project to obtain, process, archive and distribute large volumes of satellite data, initially with a focus on Indonesia and other parts of Asia. Three key changes from 'business as usual' activities were required to process and manage, on a large scale, a satellite data time-series to support the International Forest Carbon Initiative. First, at Geoscience Australia, a new facility known as the Earth Observation Data Store is being developed. Secondly, innovative techniques such as the use of USB Flash Drives for data distribution and of DVDs for quick look catalogue distribution have proved beneficial for the participating agencies in developing countries, as well as for data transfers from regional satellite archives. Thirdly, much of the data, especially the Landsat satellite imagery, has for the first time been made available to the users with minimal restrictions, via the employment of open content licensing known as Creative Commons.

The important role of information management in improving baseline data for natural hazards has been demonstrated through a collaborative pilot project between Geoscience Australia, Mineral Resources Tasmania and the University of Wollongong. The result is a 'virtual' landslide database that makes full use of diverse data across three levels of government and has enabled landslide data to be collated and accessed from a single source. Such a system establishes the foundation for a very powerful and coordinated information resource in Australia and provides a suitable basis for greater investment in data collection. This paper highlights the capacity to extend the methodology across all hazards and describes one solution in facilitating a sound knowledge base on natural disasters and disaster risk reduction.

A national dataset with more than 73,000 mineral occurrences providing information on the name, lat/long, map sheet name and number, commodities of interest and source reference for each occurrence.

Digital technology and the Internet have contributed to the information explosion and in part the widespread increase in the use of spatial information. In this regard community needs for geoscientific information has extended beyond the traditional area of mineral and petroleum exploration. Geoscience is now recognised by society as having a part to play in the achievement of social wellbeing and environmental outcomes. This paper examines whether the geoscience data providers are playing their part in the data explosion. It looks at how geoscience can be applied to real world problems and questions whether the data providers are up to the mark in satisfying the immediate expectations of users as well as initiating new areas of application. The discussion incorporates issues of price, accessibility, formats and data assemblage in relation to a hierarchy of need for decision making.

No abstract available