GEO-SEAS: A EUROPEAN INITIATIVE FOR MANAGING AND SHARING MARINE GEOLOGICAL AND GEOPHYSICAL DATA IN EUROPE AND BEYOND?

A significant barrier to marine geoscientific research in Europe is the lack of standardised marine geological and geophysical data and data products and, although there is a large volume of geological and geophysical data available for the marine environment, it is often very difficult to use these datasets in an integrated way. This is in part due to the use of different nomenclatures, formats, scales and co-ordinate systems both between different organisations as well as across national boundaries. This makes the direct use of primary marine geoscience data very difficult and also hampers use of this data to produce integrated multidisciplinary data products and services. Marine geological and geophysical data includes raw observational and analytical data, geophysical surveys (seismic, gravity etc), multibeam and side-scan sonar surveys as well as derived data products such as seafloor maps. All of which are required in order to produce a complete geological interpretation of the seafloor.

The overall objective of Geo-Seas, a European Commission funded project, has been the development of a unified e-infrastructure to facilitate the sharing of harmonised marine geoscientific data within Europe. This has resulted in a major improvement for researchers, stake holders and policy makers wanting to identify, locate and access the marine geological and geophysical data and data products held by the 26 geological surveys and research institutes which form the nodes of the Geo-Seas e-infrastructure.

This has in part been achieved through Geo-Seas having built on the work done by the existing SeaDataNet project which provides a data management e-infrastructure for oceanographic data. By adopting and adapting the SeaDataNet methodologies and technologies the Geo-Seas project has avoided unnecessary duplication of effort by reusing existing and proven technologies as well as allowing the development of a common approach to marine data management across Europe which can potentially be extended to the wider international community. This approach has already lead to the development of collaborative links with other European projects as well as extending to the wider marine geoscientific and oceanographic community including projects in the USA such as the Rolling Deck Repository (R2R) initiative.