IAMG 2001--Cancún Technical Program--Session I

Home Page Technical Program Session I Intro Session I Papers

The Bedrock Geology Map Database for the Canadian Geoscience Knowledge Network (CGKN) by Peter H. Davenport*, Geological Survey of Canada, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and others A project has just been started to produce a coherent, digital, scale-independent, bedrock geological map for Canada. It will have extensible databases of map related information (a geodatabase). The digital map is a joint effort between five of Canada's Federal, Provincial and Territorial geological surveys. The map components and databases will be distributed among the data owners, but will share a common architecture based on the North American Data Model (NADM). As a part of the Canadian Geoscience Knowledge Network (CGKN), the geodatabase will allow discovery, evaluation and acquisition, via the Internet, of consistent map-based bedrock geoscience information for Canada. This project is being coordinated with parallel projects in surficial geology and geochemistry. The initial five partners are the geological surveys of: Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador, and British Columbia, and the joint federal-territorial geoscience agencies of the Canada-Nunavut Geoscience Office and the Yukon Geology Program. Existing digital geologic maps at scales of 1:250 000 and more detailed are being used for the first phase of the project, with a restricted, but extensible, range of map attributes. These attributes include lithostratigraphic (or lithodemic) name and rank, tectonic domain and geological province as one set; chronostratigraphic age as another; and lithology as a third. Initially, the preliminary lithological classification published with NADM version 4.3 will be used (Johnson et al., 1999; http://geology.usgs.gov/dm/), but it is anticipated the more definitive classification being developed by the NADM Science Language team will be adopted when it is released. These standardized attributes would exist alongside the original map information, and other sets could be added as needed. Through this "hands-on" project, we hope to: test NADM principles as an effective way to make interoperable adjacent map sets from different agencies interoperable; further extend and document the version of NADM developed for CORDLink (http://Cordlink.gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/cordlink1/) that maintains core NADM principles but also meets the needs of CGKN to work in a distributed environment; develop tools, such as Geomatter, for data input and editing that work with a distributed database environment; develop and distribute knowledge of, and expertise in NADM and associated tools within Canada's geological surveys; demonstrate to users of geological maps, managers and, most importantly, field geologists the benefits of moving towards an internationally standardized geological map database. Other co-authors... Éric Boisvert, Geological Survey of Canada, Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada, Murray Journeay, Geological Survey of Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Andrew Okulitch, Geological Survey of Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Boyan Brodaric, Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, USA, Stephen P. Colman-Sadd, Geological Survey of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, Larry Nolan, Geological Survey of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, Bert Struik, Geological Survey of Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Marianne Quat, Geological Survey of Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Don MacIntyre, Geological Survey Branch, British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Ping Tzeng, Geological Survey of Canada, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Graham Lai, Geological Survey of Canada, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Paper in PDF format Davenport and others, Acrobat PDF, 731 k.