OneGeology

Project Status
Active

OneGeology (http://www.onegeology.org/) is an international effort to make available digital geologic map data from around the world. It doesn’t attempt to centralize all of the geologic data but rather focuses on developing a common infrastructure and set of open and interoperable web mapping service protocols to allow for seamless searching and display of disparate datasets that reside in different locations. Each country, state or province that participates in OneGeology will store its own data and serve its own public services. It doesn’t matter what software is running, what hardware is being deployed, or what location the server resides, as long as the map services follow a common convention for the map service metadata, attribute names, and types of geometries and attribute values served. OneGeology supports OGC Web Map Service (WMS) and Web Feature Service (WFS) as the common protocols for map services and GeoSciML-Portrayal as the standard for geologic map attributes. The standardization allows for consistent data retrieval and display across boundaries on geologic unit type, age, or specification.

DGS prepared and submitted open map services (supporting both WMS and WFS protocols) of statewide 1:100K scale surficial geologic units and 1:100K scale surficial geologic contacts to OneGeology. The data attributes for both layers adhere to the GeoSciML-Portrayal schema for GeologicUnitView and GeologicContactView. Delaware joins Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky and Nevada as the only states in the US with compliant mapping services published to OneGeology. It was a natural follow-on to DGS's work with the US Geoscience Information Network (USGIN) to contribute web services to the OneGeology initiative.

Both of the statewide services, 1:100K scale geologic units and 1:100K scale geologic contacts, officially achieved a web service accreditation of four stars. This encompasses: 1) meeting WMS three stars requirements, 2) appropriate metadata completeness for each service in ISO 19139 format, 3) WFS service supporting GeoSciML-Portrayal database schema. (http://www.onegeology.org/technical_progress/accreditationForm.cfm.) You can access the WMS/WFS map services through most desktop GIS programs.

URL for DGS OneGeology map services: http://maps.dgs.udel.edu/geoserver/DGS_Surficial_and_Contact_Geology/wms?