IUGS Commission for the Management and Application of Geoscience Information (IUGS-CGI)
The IUGS-CGI comprises representatives from many geoscience organisations across the world. The Commission coordinates the development and promotion of international geoscience data standards, developed under Open Geospatial Consortium [
] and ISO guidelines.
Australasia is represented by a council representative and many geologists and data modelling experts from government geological agencies who actively participate in the IUGS-CGI standards development working groups.
GeoSciML
GeoSciML is a GML-based data transfer standard developed by the Interoperability Working Group of IUGS-CGI. GeoSciML is endorsed by the Australasian Chief Government Geologist's Committee as the preferred model for interoperable geological data transfer.
GeoSciML provides standard data structures for a wide range of geological data, including geological units, structures, earth materials, boreholes, physical properties, and geological samples and analyses.
GeoSciML-Portrayal
GeoSciML-Portrayal is a GML-based markup language that implements a small subset of the GeoSciML information model, designed specifically to support portrayal of geological map data in WMS or simple-features WFS services, including geologic map units, contacts, and shear displacement structures (faults and shear zones). Version 2.0 is expected to be released in late 2012.
EarthResourceML
The EarthResourceML standard is a GML-based data transfer standard developed by the Interoperability Working Group of IUGS-CGI. EarthResourceML is endorsed by the Australasian Chief Government Geologist's Committee as the preferred model for interoperable earth resources data transfer
EarthResourceML provides standard data structures for describing mineral occurrences and ore deposits, commodities and resource estimates, mining activities, and processed materials. EarthResourceML was developed in conjunction with GeoSciML and links extensively to the GeoSciML data standard for describing geological aspects of mineral deposits.
The current stable version of EarthResourceML is v1.1. However, a version 2.0 candidate has been developed in response to use cases brought by the European INSPIRE [] data sharing initiative, and is expected to be released for wider use soon.
- EarthResourceML home page []
- EarthResourceML downloads (schemas, documentation, examples) []
- EarthResourceML development []
Observations and Measurements
The Observations and Measurements (O&M) standard is data transfer standard for scientific observations, measurements and analyses of samples of all kinds, developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium []. O&M v2 has been published by the international standards organisation ISO as standard ISO19156 []. The GeoSciML standard extends the more generic O&M standard, providing attribute structures for geochemical and geochronological analyses.
Geoscience vocabularies
A suite of vocabularies to support interoperable geoscience data have been developed by IUGS-CGI. The Australasian Controlled Vocabularies working group (CVWG) has had, and continues to have, extensive input in the development of these geoscience vocabularies.
The vocabularies have been developed primarily to support data delivery using the GeoSciML and EarthResourceML data standards, but the vocabularies can be used in any form of geoscience data delivery to improve interoperability.
Some of the vocabularies include:
- geological timescale
- simple lithology
- geological unit type
- fault type
- foliation type
- metamorphic facies
- and many more
The IUGS-CGI vocabularies are presented in SKOS RDF format as a web-hosted vocabulary service, with each vocabulary and its contained terms fully described and identified by URLs. Over 30 more vocabularies are under development in 2012.
Australian Stratigraphic Units Database
The authoritative national lexicon of stratigraphic units is maintained by Geoscience Australia on behalf of the Australian Stratigraphy Commission. The Commission is a collaborative body with representatives from all Australian jurisdictions, and provides guidelines for describing and defining geological units in Australia.
- Australian Stratigraphic Units Database home page []
- Search the database []
- Australian Stratigraphy Commission []
Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (ASEG) technical standards
The ASEG provides technical standards for a range of geophysical data types, including the ASEG-GDF2 [] metadata standard.
Australian Exploration Digital Data Reporting Standard
The national reporting standard for submission of digital exploration data can be found on the Geoscience Portal here.