DEVELOPING A 3-DIMENSIONAL GEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK MODEL FOR ALBERTA

The Alberta Geological Survey (AGS) has been tasked with developing a 3-dimensional (3D) geological framework for Alberta. However, to ensure that ‘The Framework’ will meet our internal needs as well as those of our stakeholders, we realized that it needed to be much more than a standard 3D stratigraphic model. Our goal is to develop ‘The Framework’ as a sophisticated platform, capable of integrating a variety of data types from multiple sources enabling the development of multi-scale, interdisciplinary models with built-in feedback mechanisms, allowing the individual components of the model to adapt and evolve over time as our knowledge and understanding of the subsurface increases. The Framework is supported by a holistic grid metadata systems designed to capture and store model input parameters and output statistics ensuring that modelling procedures are fully-documented, transparent, and reproducible. This is an important component of our model, because outputs from the framework model have already been used as input data for a variety of multidisciplinary projects. Therefore, ensuring the grid information is tied back to the geology and communicated effectively has become increasingly important.

This presentation will provide an overview of the processes used to build the geological framework of Alberta, lessons learned over our first year, and how were are proceeding with the construction of a dynamic, multidisciplinary, multi-scalar, geostatistically optimized geological model of Alberta.