47 47 GeoSciML – A GML Application for Geoscience Information Interchange By Stephen M. Richard and CG nteroperability Working Group U.S. Geological Survey and Arizona Geological Survey 416 W. Congress #100 Tucson, AZ 85701 Telephone: (520) 770-3500 Fax: (520) 770-3505 e-mail: steve.richard@azgs.az.gov CG nteroperability Working Group is (in alphabetic order): Eric Boisvert, Boyan Brodaric, Simon Cox, Tim Duffy, Jonas Holmberg, Bruce Johnson, John Laxton, Tomas Lindberg, Stephen Richard, Alistair Ritchie, Francois Robida, Marcus Sen, Jean Jacques Serrano, Bruce Simons, and Lesley Wyborn. INTRODUCTION The GeoSciML application is a standards-based data format that provides a framework for application-neutral encoding of geoscience thematic data and related spatial data. GeoSciML is based on Geography Markup Lan- guage (GML, Cox et al., 2004) for representation of fea- tures and geometry, and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Observations and Measurements Best Practices (Cox, 2006) for observational data. Geoscience-speciic aspects of the schema are based on a conceptual model for geoscience concepts and include geologic unit, geologic structure, and Earth material from the North America Data Model (NADMC1, North American Geologic-Map Data Model Steering Committee, 2004), and borehole informa- tion from the eXploration and Mining Markup Language (XMML, https://www.seegrid.csiro.au/twiki/bin/view/ Xmml/WebHome). Development of controlled vocabulary resources for specifying content to realize semantic data interoperability is underway. The intended scope for initial versions of GeoSciML includes information typically found on geologic maps as well as information typically recorded with boreholes. The possible uses for GeoSciML include transporting, storing, and archiving information. Amongst these, the most signiicant is transport—or information exchange— which enables information to be visualized, queried, and downloaded in spatial data infrastructures. This role for GeoSciML is particularly important, as geoscience infor- mation consumers are becoming more digitally sophisti- cated and are no longer satisied with images and portray- als of data, but want digital data in standardized formats that can be used immediately in applications. Hours, days, or weeks spent merging data sets obtained separately from multiple agencies is time wasted. Use of a standardized markup for serializing geoscience information supports a commitment by data providers to publish data to users in a standardized format. Thus, GeoSciML allows applica- tions to utilize globally distributed geoscience data and information. The GeoSciML (https://www.seegrid.csiro.au/twiki/ bin/view/CGModel/GeoSciML) project was initiated in 2003 under the auspices of the Commission for the Management and Application of Geoscience nforma- tion (CG) working group on Data Model Collaboration (https://www.seegrid.csiro.au/twiki/bin/view/CGModel/ WebHome). The CG is a commission of the nternational Union of Geological Sciences and has the objective to enable the global exchange of geoscience information for legal, social, environmental, and geoscientiic reasons. The project is part of what is now known as the CG n- teroperability Working Group (https://www.seegrid.csiro. au/twiki/bin/view/CGModel/nteroperabilityWG), which has the speciic objectives to: • develop a conceptual model of geoscientiic infor- mation that draws on existing data models, • implement an agreed subset of this model in an agreed schema language, • implement an XML/GML encoding of the model subset, • develop a test bed to illustrate the potential of the data model for interchange, and • identify areas that require standardized classiica- tions to enable interchange. GeoSciML draws from many geoscience data model efforts and from them establishes a common suite of fea- ture types based on geological criteria (units, structures, fossils) or artifacts of geological investigations (speci-