A WEB-BASED GIS FOR EGYPT'S GEOLOGIC DATASETS

Interdisciplinary research in the geological sciences often requires the compilation and analysis of large and variable spatial data sets. The application of interdisciplinary research in developing countries is often hindered by difficulties in data compilation and dissemination, and by the high costs of data acquisition. The variations in scale of existing data sets, their extremely uneven documentation, and the relative scarcity of user-friendly access tools are major obstacles in an interdisciplinary research in these countries. The advent of GIS and web-based technology and its massive potential for data integration, visualization, and modeling, have recently provided cost-effective solutions for these problems. We have established a web-based database, for dissemination and analysis of Egyptian Geological datasets

The Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority (EGSMA) is the main agency in Egypt responsible for mapping and mineral exploration. It has generated extensive maps that portray lithological, structural, and mineralization information. Many of these data sets are only available in hard copy form. This data is combined with the large collection of data for Egypt held at the Department of Geology at the University at Buffalo, including remote sensing, hydrologic, isotopic, geochronologic, and geochemical data.

Data from EGSMA and UB is combined digitally in an Oracle database, residing on a windows server. Queries are made to this database through an ArcIMS interface, and a suite of customized public domain tools added to provide basic image processing functions.

Data sets currently available include: Landsat TM (full coverage: 30m res), Landsat MSS (over the Nile delta and Lake Nasser: 80 m res), elevation (full coverage: 1 km res), geologic maps (full coverage: 1: 500,000), MODIS (full coverage, multiple times: 500m res), SIR-C data (50% Egypt: 30m res), and hydrologic data sets, including digitized ground water head contours, well and borehole locations, surface water levels in Lake Nasser and in the Tushka lakes, as well as a number of geochemical and isotopic analyses for groundwater samples. Metadata for each of these datasets is available in FGDC compliant format. Data to be integrated within the next year include: seismic, geochronologic, and additional geochemical and isotopic data.

URL: http://isis.geology.buffalo.edu/egypt.htm