ONEGEOLOGY - THE BIRTH OF A GLOBAL GEOSCIENCE SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE, OR JUST ANOTHER NOBLE ASPIRATION?

Contrary to the thinking of many in positions of power and influence in the political and regrettably, environmental, domain, the environment isn't just restricted to that bit of our world above the ground, the sub-surface is pretty important too. Think earthquakes and landslides, minerals and mining, groundwater and pollution. Like most things environmental, few of these issues respect national frontiers and if, as seems wise, we want to assess and address global environmental problems at a global scale then we need access to global environmental data. In the topographic domain that often tends to be dominant in GI, and in one or two of the environmental domains above ground, (eg meteorology) we have, comparatively speaking at least, extensive and relatively, consistent data. Not so in the geoscience domain. Unfortunately, for geoscientists (and the rest of society), digital geoscience spatial data across the globe even at small scales are either unavailable, out of date, of variable quality or inconsistent.

It's true that in several countries, extensive geophysical data exists and there is basic digital geological map data of reasonable quality and coverage. But in many more it is incomplete or is not present at all – even within Europe (which poses an interesting resource and priority challenge for a post-INSPIRE European Union and its member states…..). Even where there is good national data the chances of it being interoperable, let alone harmonise-able are small. This is not news to those within the geoscience community; many of us are well aware that we need to accelerate the development and promulgation of simple, basic and essential digital geological map standards and specifications to improve the interoperability and sharing of data. In Europe, North America and Australasia people are working hard on trying to move structural interoperability forward and some of the readers of this abstract will be aware of the development of a high-level geoscience data model and the interchange format GeoSciML. Semantic interoperability, needed to deliver some form of scientific homogeneity, ie harmonised geoscience data, is another story and will take some very serious concentration and effort by the global geoscience community in the area of terminology and classification. While geoscientists may thrive on independence and diversity, digital systems generally don't.

Despite the good work and progress with GeoSciML, moving the development and promulgation of standards forward is a slow and unglamorous process and, outside the domain of informatics people, it's regarded as a pretty esoteric business whose purpose and value is rarely fully understood. Developing a standard tends to be a very abstract occupation, somewhat detached from reality (well at least that's what many geoscientists think!).

Enter the UN International year of Planet Earth (IYPE2008) and the germ of an idea to create a 1:1 million scale global geological map dataset – a concept now known as OneGeology and the subject of this abstract. At the beginning of 2006 the 1:1 million idea was presented somewhat immaturely and at short notice to the General Assembly of the Commission for the Geological Map of the World (CGMW) in Paris. What, went the idea, if we used IYPE2008 as a stimulus to begin the creation of a digital geological map of the planet at 1:1 million scale? Could we design and initiate a project that uniquely mobilises geological surveys around the world, as part of an ongoing IYPE2008 contribution, to act as the drivers and sustainable data providers of this global dataset? Further, could we synergistically use this geoscientist-friendly vehicle of creating a tangible geological map to accelerate progress of an emerging global geoscience data model and interchange standard? Finally, could we use the project to transfer know-how to developing countries and reduce the length and expense of their learning curve, while at the same time producing geoscience maps and data that could attract interest and investment? These aspirations, plus the chance to generate a global digital geological dataset to assist in the understanding of global environmental problems and the opportunity to raise the profile of geoscience as part of IYPE2008 seemed more than enough reasons to take the proposal to the next stage.

Since that CGMW meeting in February 2006, the concept has been disseminated to organisations and individuals around the globe and has matured considerably. In addition to the support of CGMW, the project has attracted the support of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), UNESCO, and the International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM), not to mention the IYPE2008 Management Team. But crucial to the success of the concept is getting geological surveys to sign up and commit their data and resources to the cause. At the time of writing more than 50 surveys from around the world have agreed to participate. My own organisation the British Geological Survey has decided to make the project its prime contribution to IYPE2008 and as well as offering to continue to play a full role in the project's coordination, also agreed to support the initial kick-off meeting, which took place in Brighton, UK, in March 2007. Several countries, including the UK, plan to pilot the methodology and make data available during 2007-08.

The proposed methodology differs from the usual method of making available geological data for a continent or the globe – usually one editor or editorial unit compiling information from a variety of sources and in recent years using a GIS to produce the cartographic result. The OneGeology proposition is a completely modern paradigm: it is planned as a distributed model - and at the most technically sophisticated end will see a web feature service, a dynamic set of geological map data served mostly on a national basis by individual Geological Surveys and other bodies (eg the polar and marine surveys and research bodies) to a web portal, or portals, and as such will be frequently updated and improved by the data providers and reflect the most up to date data they possess. Thus to achieve its goals the project team will have combine state of the art skills in geoscience data modelling and information management with world-wide expertise and experience in geoscience. The project will obviously be closely interlinked with the IUGS Commission Working Group developing the global geoscience data model and exchange language – GeoSciML.

The key international players attended the kick-off meeting in the UK. At this meeting they endorsed and initiated the project and discussed the project plan and the specifications for the geological and information systems. During 2007 the first test datasets are anticipated to become available and we will progressively add data through 2008 so that we can present the first results at the International Geological Congress in Oslo in 2008. What then? Well we geologists work in geological time, so what we are talking about here will take no time at all ;-). We will continue to add and upgrade the data through time to progressively provide the most complete coverage of the Planet at our target scale of 1:1 million and also (more excitingly) add data at a higher and more useful resolution.

Even at the outset there was a realisation that the project would not be able to obtain 1:1 million scale geological map (lithology/chronostratigraphy) data everywhere and perhaps, in some parts of the world, any data at all. Yes there will be major faults running along many national boundaries (the semantic interoperability problem) but what a great way to get a long overdue problem tackled! It's here the Google Earth philosophy comes into play – be pragmatic, make available what you can now, and aspire to improve it in the future; after all there is no such thing as a geological map that is complete!

There are undoubtedly many more bridges to cross, but what was a mere germ at the beginning of 2006 evolved into a proposal and that proposal is now a project with an initial budget and extensive international support. The hope is, that as momentum gathers and more become aware of the project and its practical and altruistic benefits, they will come on board, contributing data and expertise. This presentation will present the progress of OneGeology to date and the technical and cultural issues it has encountered.