G&G data models in geospatial applications

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09-13-2014 10:44 AM
larryzhang
Occasional Contributor III
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Traditionally, geospatial and G&G techniques belong to different discipline.


For last decade, however, geospatial community has been facing new challenges, because more and more custmers and applications demand surface-subsurface data integration (saying,  creating drill hole traces in 3D plan/ profile/ section) and geological analysis 'within' geospatial solutions, which are commonly used in geological studies, subsurface engineering (utility, civil engineering), hydrology, river and flood rish analysis, earthquake study, mining, energy, ...


Even though huge challenges ahead, it also offers big opportunities ...


How closely to combine both disciplines to reach those diverse goals, in particular, via comining both spatial data models and G&G data models 'within' geospatial database/ servers, with rich client applications?


We see some good moves in this direction. For example, Aquaveo at Subsurface Analyst | Aquaveo.com and C Tech at EnterVol Product Suite | C Tech Development Corporation , partially or fully combine some of G&G data models within ArcGIS FGDB.


Worth to mention, major commercial G&G data models are aleady well-designed to combine both geospatial and G&G data models 'inside' G&G domain, meanwhile also allowing integrated or seamlessly interoperated with major geospatial database (like a WMS Server or ESRI ArcGIS Server) and other G&G project database (OpenWorks, GeoFrame).


For example,  Paradigm SKUA-GOCAD (Epos), which is  'proprietary' G&G data models with geospatial data models widely available for petroleum and mining industries, offers this type of 'integrated' features (complete geospatial and G&G data models in one domain) to give users much more efficiency and production for geological exploration and resource appraisals in operation...

Diagram_Epos_Apr2013.jpg

Technically, SKUA-GOCAD is a complete 3D GIS - G&G modelling system, which covers both surface 3D and subsurface 3D.

With SKUA-GOCAD, seamless interaction between 3D model visualization, multiple data space views, and a powerful query environment for selecting subsets of both geospatial and G&G data through one central software application.

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Schlumberger Seabed E&P data model (Petrel) and GEOVIA Surpac™ (Gems) offer similar capabilities and functionalities...


So far, some offer good starter with some real geological analysis capabilities in geospatial workflows as an extension inside ArcGIS to connect their own G&G database, even not completely in geospatial database yet.

RockWare GIS Link 16 - cross-sections, fence diagrams in ArcView (sold by RockWare)

Geological Software | Geology Software | Geosoft Solutions

GSI3D -Free Near-surface 3D modeling package GSI3D - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Certainly, some open data models are also trying to do so, including BGS OpenGeoscience, USGS and PPDM ... However, those data models still are facing development challenges in geospatial platform like ArcGIS...

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OneGeology OneGeology - To be the provider of geoscience data globally

Open Geoscience data models | British Geological Survey (BGS)

Borehole data model from BGS: Borehole index & interpretations | British Geological Survey (BGS)

Geochemistry data model: Geochemistry data model | Geochemistry | British Geological Survey (BGS)

Lithology data model: Lexicon data model | British Geological Survey (BGS)

NADM - The North American Geologic Map Data Model

FGDC Proposal for Geologic Data Model Standard

National Geologic Map Database -- Standards Development

About the Author
A veteran GEO engineer in petroleum and mining industries, specialized on digital twin & mapping (business and urban assets by drone mapping and mobile mapping), geomatics (geospatial intelligence, GIS), and geology (geological mapping, quantitative exploration). Vigorously devoted to GEO analytics and GEO Intelligence, especially data integration and integrity for data center over HPC and cloud infrastructures....