GeoSciML- a geoscience specific GML application to support interchange of geoscience information CGI Interoperability Working Group Presented by Stephen Richard Arizona Geological Survey/ U.S. Geological Survey

Objectives of presentation: What is GeoSciML? How was it developed? What does it look like? How do I use it?

What is GeoSciML GeoSciML is an XML-based Geography Markup Language (GML) application Based on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards Framework for application-neutral encoding of geoscience thematic data and related spatial data.

History Meeting in Edinburgh, Nov to discuss problem: –Requirement to provide and exchange data in electronic format –Data from each source in a different format so difficult to integrate Representatives of geological surveys from: UK, Canada, US, France, Germany, Netherlands, Australia (CSIRO), Sweden, Japan, Czech Republic, Poland, Ireland, Finland Set up Interoperability Working Group under auspices of new IUGS CGI to address problem

Objectives for working group Develop a conceptual geoscience data model Map this to an interchange format Develop testbed(s) to prove / demonstrate use of the interchange format Assess vocabulary requirements

Approach: Draw on previous work –Existing geoscience data models –Existing markup language specs Face-to-face meetings and Twiki Start with main components of geological map and borehole data (geological unit, Earth material, faults, contacts, and their defining concepts) Expand later to other geoscience domains (extend model or import namespaces?) Mostly piggyback on ongoing activities

Participants GeoSciML development team: –Eric Boisvert (GSC) –Boyan Brodaric (GSC) –Tim Duffy (BGS) –Simon Cox (CSIRO) –Bruce Johnson (USGS) –John Laxton (BGS) –Steve Richard (AZGS-USGS) –Jean-Jacques Serrano (BRGM) –Bruce Simons (GSV) –Lars Stolen (SGU) –Leslie Wyborn (GA)

Process Review existing models Develop a conceptual data model and from this derive logical data model in UML Map this to XML for interchange using OGC GML standard (UML2GML profile) Use web services for delivery

NADM C1: North American Geologic Map Data Model Conceptual— UML diagrams and text; implementation not specified Scope: –Materials—rock, mineral, sediment –Bodies of material (geologic units) –Structures –Processes, Events –Relationships

XMML  Observation and Measurement OGC draft standard (OGC® r4) Scope: Site (includes boreholes) Sample Observation Measurement Basis for documenting provenance of data

Interoperability via web service GA BGS USGS GSC USGS schema BGS hema GA hema GSC hema GA BGS USGS GSC GA BGS NGMDB GSC wrapper Web Services Client Communication between service providers and clients takes place using XML mark up. Use of standard markup language means schema mapping only needs to be done once Web service only implements interface for standard markup input and output

Data Interchange ExtractLoad Interchange schema GSC GeoSciML wrapper USGSU NGMDB GeoSciML wrapper Data Interchange Each data provider and consumer implements a wrapper that maps xml to and from local schema to interchange schema; Use of standard means this schema mapping only needs to be done once. Users must still resolve semantic (terminological) differences in datasets that do not use a common vocabulary. Transform

GeoSciML v2 Document content—collection of: –Geologic unit –Geologic structure –Mapped feature (lines, polygons) –Earth material description (rock, unconsolidated) –Vocabulary (Collection of terms with definitions) –Events –Relationships

Geologic Unit Classifier– link to lexicon, identifies described unit Body morphology– shape of unit as 3-D body Color— color of unit in exposures Composition category– general composition character of unit; chemical or petrographic Outcrop character — nature of outcrops formed by geologic unit Parts – aggregate geologic units Composition -- lithologic constituents Metamorphic description — facies, grade, peak P, Peak T, protolith Unit thickness Age, geologic history — one or more genetic events in history of unit Bedding character — pattern, style, thickness Physical properties — density, magnetic susceptibility, porosity, permeability Weathering character — degree, products, process, environment Related geologic units and structures – soft typed relationships

Geologic structure Subtypes: –Shear displacement structure, fault, ductile shear zone –Fracture, joint –Contact – boundary between units –Fold, Fold system – collection of related folds –Foliation, layering –Lineation –Non directed structure – soft typed class to represent sedimentary and igneous structures

Faults Displacement-- collection of displacement events –Each has age, process environment, movement type (strike slip, normal…) and sense (normal, right…), may have slip or separation Segmentation, aggregation segmentsfaults Fault system

Structure orientation Planar and linear orientation elements Allow numeric measurement, numeric range, or qualitative text specifier (e.g. steep, northerly) Planar orientation has polarity (facing) Linear orientation may be directed

Earth Material Mass noun, not a feature Subtypes: –Mineral –Inorganic fluid (water..) –OrganicMaterial –CompoundMaterial — material that is an aggregation of constituent parts –Rock, –UnconsolidatedMaterial –MaterialFossil

Rock, Unconsolidated material parts Each part: –role, proportion, type –represents aggregation of particles of some type, which may have a grain size and shape description –composed of some Earth Material Relationships between parts (overgrows, replaces…)

Rock, Unconsolidated material properties Color Composition category – terms for chemical or petrographic character Genetic category – term to characterize geologic history of material Consolidation degree Lithology classifier – kind of material described, from controlled vocabulary Physical properties — density, magnetic susceptibility, porosity, permeability Metamorphic description – facies, grade, peak P, peak T, protolith Fabric description – type, text description Particle geometry – grain size, sorting, shape, aspect ratio

Cobre Ridge Tuff (Jurassic)- Drewes [1997] divided into upper and lower welded tuff (units Juw and Jlw of Drewes, 1997) separated by sandstone of Arivaca (Jsa). Described as porphyritic rock with % phenocrysts 2-7 mm in size, in cryptocrystalline groundmass with some relict devitrified glass and shards. Phenocrysts included quartz (3-8%), albitized plagioclase (2-10%), potassium feldspar (possibly sanidine in some rocks) (2-10%), biotite (1-5%), and trace magnetite, apatite, and zircon. Lithic fragments and fiamme are sparse. Rock weathers slightly platy, with foliation oriented parallelt o bedding in sandstone of Arivaca. Fiamme and shardy structure are usually visible without a microscope, but in some rocks they are nebulous features. Probably more than 500 m thick.

Metadata Uses ISO Feature Level or Dataset level Extensive capability to record –Data processing steps –Source citation –Spatial reference –Maintenance information –Use constraints, availability, point of contact….

Linked packages Observation and measurement –Detailed data acquisition metadata, process, equipment, observation conditions Sampling –Site, Borehole –Specimen Assay data exchange –Specimen splits –Chain of custody Geologic Time –GSSP –Time ordinal era

What is “an Observation” Observation -- a procedure applied at a specific time and place Result -- an estimate of some property value Observed property is bound to a feature of interest

Observed property Sensible phenomenon or property-type –Length, mass, temperature, shape –location, event-time –colour, chemical concentration –count/frequency, presence –species or kind Expressed using a reference system or scale –Scale may also be ordinal or categorical –May require a complex structure “Sensible”, but not necessarily physical …

Feature-of-interest The observed property is associated with something –“Location” does not have properties, the thing at a location does –The property must be logically consistent with the domain feature-type E.g. rock sample->density, pixel->colour, city-> population, ocean-surface->temperature … Observation-target

Procedures Instruments & Sensors –Respond to a stimulus from local physics or chemistry –Intention may concern local or remote source (brunton compass vs. camera) –Sample (feature of interest) may be in situ or re-located Observers, algorithms, simulations, processing chains … “estimation” process

A common pattern: the observation model An Observation is an Event whose result is an estimate of the value of some observedProperty of the featureOfInterest, obtained using a specified procedure The Feature-of-interest concept reconciles remote and in-situ observations

Proximate vs. Ultimate Feature-of-Interest The proximate feature-of-interest may sample a more meaningful domain-feature –Rock-specimen samples an ore-body –Well samples an aquifer –Sounding samples an ocean/atmosphere column –Cross-section samples a rock-unit –Scene samples the earth’s surface i.e. two feature types involved, with an association between them

Sampling features

GeoSciML use cases Data publication/interchange –Geologic maps –Borehole geology –Specimen descriptions –Earth material substrate for soil map Input/output format for applications –3-D models –Mineral resource assessment –Hazard assessment Shared schema for specifying properties of interest –Queries –Data discovery –Symbolization

What GeoSciML does not do Create information Determine fitness for use Resolve semantic conflicts Not efficient for online display of maps Record cartographic portrayal information

Communication protocols Data language Data structure Data content interoperability GeoSciML Ontology (shared concepts) Geoscience GML, XML WFS, WMS, WCS OpenGIS Interoperability Stack TCP/IP, hardware protocols, etc

Semantic interoperability: SAME?

Use cases –display map, query one feature, return attributes in GeoSciML –query several map features, return GeoSciML file for download –reclassify map features based on GeoSciML GeologicAge or Lithology Activities: Testbed 2

Results Use-case 1: query feature –Query one map feature (e.g. a geologic unit) and return GeoSciML

Current activities Concept definition task group mission –Specify concept space for GeoSciML attributes –Define categories that cover each space and assign language independent identifiers to each category Melbourne, Australia Sept – test bed 3 use cases Learn more, get involved: or Google ‘GeoSciML Twiki’

Concept Definition Task Group Specify concepts and property values required to populate GeoSciML document instances Language independent identifiers allow association of these with different words for different communities

In Closing Significant challenges –Service definitions –Development of wrappers for mapping to/from interchange format(s) –Semantic interoperability-- shared vocabulary/ontology or software semantic mediation

Why GeoSciML? Geoinformatics! Discover information resources Utilize existing data Enable automated workflow utilizing geoscience information – Decision making; Research; Education

The End

Data Tier Data sources are heterogeneous in schema and semantics Data sources are independently managed Middleware Web services A web service may be clientfor one or more other services. Web services use XMLfor communication (syntactic interoperability), but each client and data source may use different schema. Client Human user Client side may be an automated applicationforfurther processing or a human information user. Clients operate in local environment Query construction, Result viewing Automated process Query construction, Result viewing

Requirements to set up service: Data in vector digital form Web server connected to the internet Internet map server that can access data. Software to process OGC Web Map Service (WMS) and Web Feature Service (WFS) requests Software to convert hosted data into GeoSciML based on service requests.

Related Work CML – components for geochemistry Water ML – components for hydrogeology Mineral Occurrence model – components for economic geology DIGGS – Data interchange for geotechnical and geoenvironmental specialists

Application to a domain feature of interest –Feature-type taken from a domain-model observed property –Member of feature-of-interest-type procedure –Suitable for property-type