LASED: A DATA-MANAGEMENT SCHEME FOR GEOLOGIC AND GEOPHYSICAL DATA COLLECTED FROM THE LOUISIANA COASTAL ZONE

The Louisiana Sedimentary and Environmental Database (LASED) is the result of efforts by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), State, and academic cooperators to manage decades of geologic and geophysical data gathered from the Louisiana coastal zone. The database incorporates a wide range of data types such as: sediment-sample descriptions, textural and geochemical analyses, seismic profiles, raster-image maps, and logbooks. Data are integrated with spatial and attribute information that allows processing and visualization using standard Geographic Information System (GIS) and Internet browsing tools.

The backbone of LASED is an Oracle-based ArcSDE geodatabase. Data holdings are hyperlinked to many resources, including the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology (CMG) InfoBank data catalog, published data archives, project websites, and web publications. Limited public access to the database is provided via ArcIMS (http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/lased/). Use of standardized logs, acquisition parameters, formats, and naming conventions enables: rapid processing of newly acquired digital data, easy metadata capture, swift population of the geodatabase and published data archives, and hopefully ends future data rescue. Recent technology and processing techniques allow conversion of decades-old analog data to digital formats that preserve quantitative attributes. New tools provide improved visualization and use of these legacy datasets, and LASED serves as the “search engine” for locating data spatially or by attribute.

LASED is a crucial project resource. The geodatabase serves as an online data archive and analysis tool available to registered users via the USGS Intranet. Benefits to storing data in a geodatabase are many and include: centralized storage and multi-user access, routine backups and offsite storage or replication, and integration of diverse data types or other databases (i.e., usSEABED) and Internet portals (i.e., geodata.gov). Creating a distributed data-management scheme utilizing the geodatabase, CMG InfoBank, ArcIMS, and published archives ensure; data preservation, wide distribution, and access from remote locations.