IAMG 2001--Cancún Technical Program--Session I

Home Page Technical Program Session I Intro Session I Papers

The Geological Map Database of Great Britain: Version One Complete: So what's Next? by Ian Jackson, British Geological Survey, Nottingham, UK In 2001 the British Geological Survey (BGS) will complete Version One of the 1:50,000 scale digital geological map database of Great Britain. So that's it!!.. the job's done!. time for that long vacation !! well not quite. While 1:50 000 scale cover of even a small country like Britain is a major achievement, expected to underpin many other BGS developments and products, the job is far from complete. A pragmatic approach was adopted to ensure availability of national digital geological map cover at a meaningful scale, in a less-than-geological timescale. This means some major challenges remain to be overcome. These are likely to be the challenges that all geological survey organisations face as they attempt to fulfil their missions to continue to provide relevant geological information and knowledge into the 21st Century. How will we obtain the resources to manage, update, extend and improve this first version of the map database (and gain recognition for the priority of these tasks within our own organisations)? How do we achieve consistency within the map database and at the same time incorporate the latest survey data and interpretations? How do we integrate with the map database all the other geoscience data a geological survey holds? Now that the technology is available, shouldn't we move on and go for seamless digital workflows from field to user? And when do we start to work fully in the 3rd and 4th dimensions that we have always claimed distinguishes our science from mere topographic mapping? How can we supply harmonious information on pan-national problems across frontiers, when there are no European or international standards (and often no de facto national standards either)? Finally and perhaps most importantly, do we really know what products and services our user communities need and want from this database and how close are we to delivering it? For it is certain that the geological map, digital or not, is a means to an end, not an end in itself. This paper will describe how BGS tackled the construction of Version One of the digital geological map database of Britain, summarising the strengths and weaknesses of its pragmatic approach. It will then outline how BGS is trying to address the challenges above and in doing so hopefully contribute to clarifying and resolving shared problems.