GeoSciML DEVELOPMENT STATUS REPORT

GeoSciML v2 was released in 2008 as a data transfer standard for geoscience information. It is an XML markup language utilizing the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Geography Markup Language (GML) for spatial information, and Observations and Measurements markup schema (O&M) for field and lab observations, including boreholes. GeoSciML has been tested in an OGC web services compliant testbed comprising services from 10 geological surveys worldwide. Testbed services and products include Web Mapping Services (WMS) and Web Feature Services (WFS) serving data in GeoSciML v2 form. Resources for learning more about GeoSciML are available through http://geosciml.org. Project-based extensions for encoding groundwater information (Canada) and mineral resource information (Australia) have been developed and are in use. GeoSciML has been adopted for OneGeology Europe (http://www.onegeology-europe.org/) and INSPIRE data services. Various implementation approaches have been developed using free, open-source software from Deegree and Cocoon (http://www.geosciml.org/geosciml/2.0/cookbook/). A new release from the Geoserver project (v.2, now in beta, http://geoserver.org/display/GEOS/Latest) has added functionality for schema mapping to facilitate complex feature WFS implementation. Client software is still rudimentary, but as more data is published via WFS, more resources will be devoted to client-side development. There are still significant challenges to interoperable GeoSciML services that need to be addressed through development of application profiles and engineering of vocabulary services to improve integration of controlled vocabularies. Upgrades to the data model, and issues with service architecture and controlled vocabulary functionality will be addressed at a workgroup meeting in Quebec, Canada in September, 2009.