GEOMAPMAKER: THE ARIZONA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY'S ESRI ARCGIS PRO TOOLBAR FOR EFFICIENTLY DEVELOPING GEMS-COMPLIANT GEOLOGIC MAPS

A major difficulty in large, collaborative geologic map projects, such as regional compilations, is enforcing data standards and compatible work-flows among many contributing geologists. To help resolve this issue, the Arizona Geological Survey has developed the GeoMapMaker toolbar for ESRI ArcGIS Pro. When used in conjunction with modern geodatabase and versioning practices, GeoMapMaker ensures that each individual mapper working on a project is unobtrusively directed towards the same cartographic workflow. The GeoMapMaker workflow encourages users to approach mapping from a linework-first perspective (contacts and faults) that seamlessly transitions into the description and attribution of map units. Map unit polygons are therefore generated directly from lines, rather than being drawn separately, dramatically reducing the possibility for topological errors and other forms of data corruption. It also provides many supplementary functions for user-convenience such as: 1) a unified approach to transferring symbology styles among workers; 2) a graphical interface for establishing stratigraphic hierarchies; 3) linking data to external vocabularies of geologic terms; 4) styling and attributing orientation points; 5) and various other data import, export, and validation functions. This highly structured, yet convenient, workflow is partially made possible because of GeoMapMaker’s strict compliance with the U.S. Geological Survey’s new Geologic Map Schema (GeMS), which ensures data compatibility within and among different users’ projects. The Arizona Geological Survey will make GeoMapMaker publicly and freely available in Fall 2022 so that other geologic surveys and the rest of the geologic mapping community can easily create and publish GeMS-compliant, multi-user maps.