THE 1 : 2 500 000 INTERNATIONAL QUATERNARY MAP OF EUROPE– CHANGE FROM A PURE PAPER MAP TO A GEOLOGICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM

Already in 1932 at the 2nd Congress of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) held in St. Petersburg the idea was discussed to represent the main features of the European Quaternary for the whole of Europe. Since then, in cooperation with INQUA and in international scientific collaboration the BGR compiled the International Quaternay Map of Europe (IQUAME2500). This paper map was published in 15 map sheets, the last of which was finished in 1995: sheet “Bern”. It is a traditional paper map. The Quaternary is an essential part of geology: it is the uppermost layer of the geological subsurface and thus is in strong demand: it provides Sand and Gravel deposits, groundwater resources, building ground for houses, streets, landfills, plants and many more. Geological maps have always provided for their users basic knowledge about the distribution of natural resources such as ore, water, oil or building stones. With the advent of Information Technology (IT), some factors that constrained our predecessors 50 -15 years ago no longer exist. Modern computing systems (databases, Geoinformation systems, the Internet) allow us to store, retrieve, combine and present far more information and knowledge about an area than we could ever display on a 2-dimensional piece of paper. Thus BGR started to rework and digitize the IQUAME2500 paper map in order to build a Quaternary Geological Information system (GIS) of Europe where Quaternary information can be retrieved, combined and used without any political boundary problems across the entwire Europe The Quaternary information is planned to be made compatible with the already existing GIS of the 1: 5 Million International (pre-Quaternary) Geological map of Europe and Adjacent Areas (IGME 5000) so hat the information of both layers can be combined, selected and cross-referenced. It is planned to make the information conformal with the data specifications of the European INSPIRE Directive. This presentation presents the GIS-concept and discusses the challenge to create a conceptual model that combines a huge amount of information derived from a paper map with an already existing system paper map and comply with actual legislation.