Australian Minerals Industry Rolls out the OGC Interoperability Bandwagon

By Rob Woodcock
SEE Grid Community Director & Computational Services Architect
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

Australia has a relatively mature minerals exploration environment, with large amounts of geological data distributed between the Australian Government, various state governments, research organisations and industry. The primary users of these data are in the global mineral exploration industry. Other users are focussed on various planning and environmental activities. The Solid Earth and Environment Grid (SEEGrid) community recognises that poor data interoperability is a major barrier to the effective use of these existing data. Data interchange standards are limited or absent, and the fragmented nature of the mining software market adds to the problem. The objective of the SEEGrid community is to foster the development of open information standards in the earth and environment domain. To demonstrate the real advantages of easy data interchange, a testbed for real-time interoperability between data housed in the geological surveys of the various states and territories in Australia has been undertaken. The initial project involved three jurisdictions sharing a border in central Australia. The primary technical collaborators are the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Geoscience Australia (GA), Social Change Online (SCO) and Fractal Technologies (FT), as well as each of the participating surveys.

Data from several servers come together for users of SEEGrid.

Common feature types describing mineral assay samples and measurements are delivered via a 'translating' Web Feature Service (WFS) deployed in each of the participating agencies. Initially these were the Department of Primary Industries and Resources South Australia, the Geological Survey of Western Australia and GA. The use of a 'translating' service was critical to the project success since this allows publication of live data without requiring intrusive changes to the data stores. The server software was a modified version of GeoServer, the open source Open Geospatial Consortium(R) (OGC) reference implementation for WFS. Three software clients were developed to demonstrate service interoperability:

• a Web-based mapping application using technology from project partner SCO
• a small Java form-based report client
• an enhancement to FT's 3-D desktop visualisation application

These all allow users to display and query data from all data providers in the one interface.

SEEGrid created map of Tasmania.

Direct funding for the testbed came from an AUSIndustry grant matched by a joint effort between the Minerals Council of Australia and every State and Territory Geological Survey. With the successful testbed in place, AUSIndustry provided additional funds to showcase the testbed and extend it to all the remaining Australian states. Additional services are now running in Tasmania, the Northern Territory, Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales, though local jurisdictional policies prevent some of the service from being externally visible. The showcase took the form of a roadshow covering eight Australian capital cities during June and July 2005. More than 370 people attended the events. They came from state and federal government, industry and academia. The roadshow presented executive briefings that demonstrated how interoperable services had a real capacity to save resources and technology diffusion workshops on how the testbed was deployed and implemented.

 

End-user tools allow the creation of maps, here covering a bit of the state of Victoria.

The objectives were that participants would gain an understanding of interoperable geospatial services, the critical need for such services, and the current state of play of these services in the government geoscience sector. Participants were also asked to consider the benefits that interoperable services could bring to their organisation, how they could maximise the value of their digital geospatial assets, and how interoperable services could be deployed between them and their collaborators. Attendees came from 36 different small to medium enterprises from the mining, spatial and environmental industries, and from nine major resource companies. Government agencies attending included natural resources, infrastructure and industry (resources and primary). There were also a number of unexpected attendees including police services from three different states, Centrelink (Australia's national welfare agency), Australia Post and the Native Title Tribunal. A survey of the participants showed that more than 92 per cent of attendees felt that the individual objectives of the roadshow were achieved. Following the roadshow, explorers at the Victorian Minerals Council Annual Workshop agreed "that the SEEGrid project for interoperability of pre-competitive geoscience data was essential for its long-term benefits to the future exploration effort in Victoria." The success of the roadshow and SEEGrid is expanding the focus of interoperability. In a submission to the working group for the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC), the Australian Geoscience Council wrote: "The development of new ways to store and access data and information (such as the SEE Grid) should be embraced by the social sciences for analysis of confidential data on topics such as health, ageing, indigenous culture, taxation status, mobile phone services and even climate change. We therefore recommend that the social sciences are encouraged to participate in the development and implementation of SEEGrid."