OneGeology

Mary Carter

Planet Earth
Our planet Earth is one of the rocky planets in our solar system. Geology is the study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes Earth. The outer surface of the earth, the crust, is divided into rigid rafts of rock, called tectonic plates. While the solid surface rock is visible in some places, sometimes providing magnificent scenery, as in the Cliffs of Moher, in many areas rock is hidden from view under soils and plants, or covered by water. Geological maps give some indication of what type of rock is down there, showing geological features, rock units and strata.

Natural Resources
Who cares what lies beneath the Earth’s surface? For one thing the earth is a source of many of our Natural Resources. Natural Resources are referred to economically as land and raw materials. Raw materials found in the earth include such things as ores of old, copper, silver etc, as well as oils and gas. While many parts of the world are desperately short of natural resources, some economies are mainly based on their exploitation. Geological maps help us define where these resources can be found. Movements between the tectonic plates cause tsunamis, earthquakes and other natural disasters. Added to this is the growing public interest in the environment and in particular climate change, solving the problem of excess CO₂, or where energy is going to come from in the future. You then begin to understand the importance of geology. There has never been a bigger need to understand the global environment and to solve global environmental problems.

   
View of some datasets on the www.onegeology.org portal

‘Images reproduced with the permission of the OneGeology Secretariat & registered Participants. All rights Reserved’

Objectives of OneGeology
OneGeology is an international project to make web-accessible the best available geological map data worldwide at a scale of about 1 to 1 million, initiated as a Geological Survey contribution to the UN International Year of Planet Earth 2008. This project capitalises on the wealth of knowledge available in Geological Surveys in nations around the world. To end August 2009, 109 nations have committed to delivering their part of the Geological jigsaw puzzle. Digital geological map data is often of variable quality and consistency. The aim is to bring it all together, making it easily accessible and creating an important source of global geological map data available in a standard data structure. The geoscience community also needs to accelerate the development and spread of simple, essential digital geological map standards. The project will also transfer practical know-how and the latest technology from more advanced countries to those less well advanced, reducing the length and expense of the learning curve, while at the same time producing maps and data that will attract interest and investment.

Funding
Funding has been raised to support OneGeology work and goals, €3.25 million from eContent plus programme for the 21-nation OneGeology-Europe project. Starting in September 2008, it also supports the INSPIRE Directive. INSPIRE was brought into force in May 2007, establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe to support Community environmental policies, and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment. In the USA 50 state surveys received $700,000 for a Geoscience Information network, with similar aims.

Technical Information
Getting down to the technical details, OneGeology is based on the principal of interoperability, with maps produced on individual servers, and sent directly to the web client. Currently 125 datasets are being served from 40 countries. Hosted by each Geological Survey, each participant delivers its map or maps through a standard web service (WMS/WFS). The list of metadata, or data about the data, is collected into a catalogue service and managed "centrally". With this in place the portal can then display/aggregate all the maps. The central portal is located in France and is run by the French Geological Survey, BRGM. There were 420,000 visits to the portal at www.onegeology.org in the first six months, 50,000 on the opening day. Recently, the portal stayed up even when hit 29 million times in one month, a testament to the resilience and strength of the service provided. A Technical Working group defines standards for OneGeology, and provides technical specification for the services and the portal. They also provide "Cookbooks" which explain to participating Geological Surveys how to set up the services using open source software, and they provide technical support. Another working group has developed a standard language to exchange geoscientific data, GeoSciML, which is based on GML (Geography Markup Language). To guarantee consistency, the project team also have links with standardization bodies.

The Future
Future aims include increasing the number of countries participating, and moving progressively from delivering data by WMS, which provides data as an image/raster, to WFS which provides data with Geometry (points, polygons, lines) and attributes (text). With the aim of getting more sustainable governance and funding, it is hoped to move OneGeology to a not-for-profit incorporated status.

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