DELIVERING KENTUCKY GEOLOGIC MAP INFORMATION ON THE WEB

The availability of geoscience information on the Web has expanded exponentially over the past five years. The Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) has developed services for searching, viewing and downloading data, maps, and publications that have a geographic location or extent. These services are widely used by the public and private sectors. To date, almost all of the KGS tabular databases of petroleum, coal, hydrol-ogy, as well as core and sample holdings are online. Users benefit because they can obtain information when they need it from anywhere in the world, and the Survey benefits because it serves more customers with fewer staff resources. With the completion of the digital conversion of Kentucky’s 707 7.5-minute geologic maps, KGS is now meeting the challenge of delivering these data to users on the Web.

Whereas tabular databases (e.g., water well locations) have relatively simple structure for Web delivery, geologic maps are complex documents that record rock unit lithology, structure, and relations and an inter-pretation of geologic history for a geographic area. Developing internet services to present these data is challenging because the user community is diverse with respect to its background and needs. A developer may wish to know if there will be any problems associated with landslides for a building site. Other users may desire a more traditional geologic map presentation to include in a report.

The system under development at KGS utilizes a geographic portal concept, where users first specify the extent of an area of interest, then link to a variety of map and database services for the information required. This method facilitates making multiple views of geologic maps and comparing them to other related pa-rameters. The geologic map database is seamless, so that maps can be made for any project area irrespec-tive of quadrangle boundaries. Both traditional and derivative geologic map views are provided, and links to descriptive and interpretive information about geologic map units aid users in understanding the map.