ONEGEOLOGY: THE GLOBAL CONTEXT FOR A EUROPEAN E-GEOSCIENCE PROJECT

In February 2006 a deceptively simple concept was put forward. Could we use the International Year of Planet Earth 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.

In March 2007, in Brighton, UK, 81 geoscientists from 43 countries and from fifty three national and international bodies gathered together to consider whether they would be prepared to collaborate to create a global interoperable geological map dataset. The participants unanimously agreed the Brighton “Accord” and kicked off “OneGeology”, an initiative that now has the support of 78 nations. In a sentence the OneGeology mission that was agreed is to “make web-accessible the best available geological map data worldwide at a scale of about 1:1 million, as a Geological Survey contribution to the International Year of Planet Earth”. The aim was to create dynamic digital geological map data for the world with an initial target scale of 1:1 million, but the project is pragmatic and accepts a range of scales and the best available data. The geological map data is being made available as a distributed web service, using WMS and WFS. Geological Surveys are dynamically 'serving' the data for their territories to a web portal. OneGeology is accelerating the global introduction of the foundation technologies necessary for dynamic interchange of geoscience data and allows real time access to the latest version of information and knowledge from the geological surveys of the world.

Since those early days in 2006 OneGeology has grown to be an international project that has not only progressed its scientific and technical goals in launching the first version of its web map portal with map data from many nations, it has also attracted substantial scientific, public and media interest around the world and spawned continental activity and projects. At the time of submission of this abstract final negotiations are taking place, between the EC and a consortium representing 30 partners and 21 nations, to put in place a grant agreement for a major (€3.25 million) eContentplus project in support of INSPIRE, the EC directive which will create a spatial data infrastructure for Europe. The proposal to the EC is known as OneGeology-Europe and is likely to start in September 2008. The project proposal has a very straightforward case: geological data are a key environmental dataset, essential to the health and wealth of society. While rich geological data assets exist in the Geological Survey of each individual Member State they are extremely difficult to discover, to obtain and to use and they are not interoperable. Geological spatial data are necessary for, amongst many other things, the prediction and mitigation of landslides, subsidence, earthquakes, flooding and pollution. Geology is a key dataset in INSPIRE (Annex II); it is also fundamental to the Annex III Themes of natural risk zones, energy and mineral resources. It is needed for the Groundwater and Soils protection Directives, the GMES and GEOSS programmes and for the development of the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS), being developed by the EEA. The proposed OneGeology-Europe project will make geological spatial data held by the geological surveys of Europe more easily discoverable and accessible via the Web.

The project will produce a web-accessible, interoperable geological spatial dataset for the whole of Europe at 1:1 million scale, based on existing data held by the pan-European Geological Surveys. It will develop a harmonised specification for basic geological map data and make progress towards harmonising the dataset (an essential first step to addressing harmonisation at higher data resolutions). It will accelerate the development and deployment of a nascent international interchange standard for geological data, GeoSciML, which will enable the sharing and exchange of the data within and beyond the geological community within Europe and globally. It will facilitate re-use and addition of value by a wide spectrum of users in the public and private sector and identify, document and disseminate strategies for the reduction of technical and business barriers to re-use. It plans to address the multilingual aspects of access through a multilingual discovery portal. In identifying and raising awareness in the user and provider communities it will move geological knowledge closer to the end-user where it will have greater societal impact and ensure fuller exploitation of a key data resource gathered at huge public expense. The project intends to provide examples of best practice in the delivery of digital geological spatial data to users, e.g. in the insurance, property, engineering, planning, mineral resource and environmental sectors. OneGeology-Europe will also see Europe play a leading and pivotal role in the development of a global geoscience SDI. Geoscience, like all environmental domains, is worldwide in its nature and reach and through the project Europe will make a crucial contribution to and advance OneGeology-Global.

In summary, OneGeology addresses head-on the challenges of interoperability and open standards and will improve access to, and exploitation of, rich and relevant digital content. In bringing together and raising awareness amongst an extensive network – Geological Surveys with proven capacity and stability, plus users and stakeholders from a cross section of key sectors - it will assist in the dissemination of best practice, while at the same time identifying and addressing weaknesses, barriers, gaps and opportunities. While the problems and opportunities geology raises are trans-national many of the issues are currently being tackled on a local basis and in a disconnected way by individual nations. OneGeology at a global and European level seeks to address that.