Leverage and Delegation in Developing an Information Model for Geology Simon Cox Research Scientist 14 December 2007

CSIRO AGU Fall 2007 – IN52A-05 Cox Outline GeoSciML scope, its community of interest Methodology & platform: geospatial standards Delegation within GeoSciML Extensions from GeoScML Conclusions

CSIRO AGU Fall 2007 – IN52A-05 Cox GeoSciML A language for exchange of geoscience information UML logical model XML document format Scope: interpreted and observed geology MappedFeature, GeologicUnit, GeologicStructure, Fossil, Geologic timescale, Borehole, Observation, etc i.e. information required to maintain geologic maps More detail: see poster IN53A-0949

CSIRO AGU Fall 2007 – IN52A-05 Cox e.g. GeologicUnit

CSIRO AGU Fall 2007 – IN52A-05 Cox e.g. Borehole More detail: The GeoSciML Logical Model - IN53A-0949 (poster)

CSIRO AGU Fall 2007 – IN52A-05 Cox Immediate governance arrangements for GeoSciML IUGS Commission for Geoscience Information Active participants in GeoSciML: GSC, USGS, AZGS, BGS, BRGM, SGU, GA, GSV, GSJ, APAT + CSIRO These people are responsible for the design and maintenance of GeoSciML Documentation + discussion: Model and schema:

CSIRO AGU Fall 2007 – IN52A-05 Cox Standards Framework for GeoSciML Geoscience is largely geospatial → Use geospatial information standards for basic framework from IS0/TC211 (the ISO series) and the Open Geospatial Consortium ISO standards The conceptual schema language (UML) to formalize the design Standard treatments for geometry, time, fields, coordinate systems Meta-model for “features” (named, typed things) XML encoding rule – “Geography Markup Language” OGC information and service models Standard treatment for Observations & Measurements Standard http service interfaces – WMS, WFS, SOS

CSIRO AGU Fall 2007 – IN52A-05 Cox How does this Framework show up? eg MappedFeature ISO Feature Model ISO Geometry ISO Metadata OGC Sampling Model By reference to external components

CSIRO AGU Fall 2007 – IN52A-05 Cox Internal delegation GeoSciML model/schema defines data structures to quite a high degree of detail e.g. LithostratigraphicUnit is a kind of GeologicFeature with the properties “preferredAge”, “classifier”, “beddingPattern” etc Property values are scoped to an explicit scale i.e. timescale, stratigraphic index, units of measure may use a localized scale or dictionary Although the governance of scales, vocabularies etc are delegated to the data provider, for maximum interoperability it is recommended to use published, well-governed vocabularies

CSIRO AGU Fall 2007 – IN52A-05 Cox e.g. localized vocabularies within standard structures Castlemaine Group - Lancefieldian Ocl published description instance Formation...

CSIRO AGU Fall 2007 – IN52A-05 Cox Extensibility Related communities are already building specializations on top of GeoSciML GroundWaterML – see IN53C-03 “Aquifer” specializes GeologicUnit GeochronML – see IN53C-02 Specialized specimens and observation-procedures

CSIRO AGU Fall 2007 – IN52A-05 Cox Extensibility methodology for GroundwaterML Same pattern as GeoSciML’s specialization of ISO & O&M … NB this is enforced within the development environment by the use of “controlled packages” in a variety of SubVersion code repositories

CSIRO AGU Fall 2007 – IN52A-05 Cox Key points GeoSciML both uses, and contributes to, a distributed governance framework for geoscience information UML/XML framework allows delegated governance UML packages (XML namespaces) reflect system boundaries  discrete governance arrangements Markup conventions support late-binding of selected elements (esp. vocabularies and scales) Understand the scope and reach of your community Only maintain the elements that are: a.important to you b.not governed by someone else Enable extensions to your model Publish re-usable components in http repository e.g. XMI of UML model; XML Schema Maintain your components in an orderly way Don’t cause surprises!

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