Legacy product - no abstract available

Papua New Guinea lies in a very active volcanic region of the world, where eruptions and other volcanic hazards can have disastrous results. To monitor the volcanoes, the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory (RVO) was established in 1940. Geoscience Australia has provided the RVO with technical aid in many forms, including (since 2010) advice and assistance in the creation of an information management system (IMS). The purpose, scope and design features of this system are described.

Geochronology is the vital fourth dimension for geological knowledge. It provides the temporal framework for understanding and modelling geological processes and rates of change. Incorporating geochronological 'observations and measurements' into interoperable geological data systems is thus a critical pursuit. - Although there are several resources for storing and accessing geochronological data, there is no standard format for exchanging such data among users. Current systems are a mixture of comma-delimited text files, Excel spreadsheets and PDFs that assume prior specialist knowledge and frequently force the user to laboriously - and potentially erroneously - extract the required data manually. - Geoscience Australia and partners are developing a standard data exchange format for geochronological data ('geochronML') within the broader framework of Observations and Measurements and GeoSciML that are an important facet of emerging international geoscience data format standards. - Geochronology analytical processes and resulting data present some challenging issues as a rock "age" is typically not a direct measurement, but rather the interpretation of a statistical amalgam of several measurements chosen with the aid of prior geological knowledge and analytical metadata. The level at which these data need to be exposed to a user varies greatly, even to the same user over the course of a project. GeochronML is also attempting to provide a generic pattern that will support as wide as range of radioisotopic systems as possible. This presentation will discuss developments at Geoscience Australia and the opportunities for collaboration.

The main library collection of the Doc Fisher Geoscience Library consists of the accumulated books, journals and other materials acquired to meet the information needs of staff over the long history of the agency and its predecessors: the Bureau of Mineral Resources and the Australian Geological Survey Organisation, as well as agencies which have merged with these over the years, including AUSLIG. The majority of these are commercial publications, items received from comparable agencies in exchange for GA publications, or donations, including company reports. As well as traditional text-based materials, more recent formats (microfiche, VHS videotape, CDROM, DVD and web-based resources are held. All areas of research and operations of the organisation are supported by appropriate material available in, or accessible through arrangements made by the Library.

Access to geoscience data via the web is made easier for clients if all servers provide a common interface. The OGC?s Web Feature Service (WFS) defines a standard http-based service description and request syntax, using GML for the data encoding. A GML application schema for the feature-types, such as XMML, completes the definition of the service interface. This service configuration was trialled in a testbed involving government geological survey organisations serving geochemistry data from three adjacent jurisdictions in Australia. The three organisations had quite different data-store software and storage schemas. The testbed focussed on 1. the design of feature-types for specimens and measurements to support a realistic mineral exploration scenario 2. the request syntax, in particular restricting the query-model to limit the load on the server while satisfying the use-case 3. configuration of the server-layer, to translate the result-set from the private model to the GML application language representation 4. deployment of multiple applications that connect to the services and provided a merged view of the results, in map, tabular and report form. Modifications to the open-source Geoserver and Geotools software (used in all three service instances) required to accomplish the testbed have been contributed to the Geoserver codebase. Several limitations in the WFS specification were identified, and are now subject of change-requests to through the OGC specification maintenance process. Significant technology skills were transferred into the participating organisations as a result of the testbed. Several additional jurisdictions have indicated an intention to join the geochemistry testbed, and a follow-on testbed involving lease-areas (i.e. complex non-point-located data) is underway. The testbed has clearly demonstrated the value of common feature types on the public interface, creating a marketplace for information sharing through commodification of the data-product.

Case Study: GeoFrame software helps Geoscience Australia provide quick access to 2D and 3D seismic survey data within newly released license/permit in support of successful Australian Acreage Release bidding rounds

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 University of Geosciences in Wuhan is developing the computer systems to help the provincial surveys re-map the geology of China at 1:250 000 and 50 000 scales in just 12 years. With a land area 25% larger than Australia's, China has about 15 000 1:50 000 map sheets! The maps are really just by-products, though, as the ultimate goal is to build a computer database of the geology and mineral resources of the whole of China. LIU Songfa and I went to Wuhan in late 1999 to talk to Professor WU and his colleagues about techniques of field-data acquisition and geoscience database design.

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.

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.