GEOMIND - Geophysical Multilingual Internet-Driven Information Service

The Project

• GEOMIND = Geophysical Multilingual Internet-Driven Information Service
• EC funding program: eContentplus
• Project type: Targeted Project
• Grant agreement: ECP-2005-GEO-038150
• Number of Involved researchers: more than 100
• Current number of data providers: 11

Aims

The geophysical data are applicable as the main source of information on the geosphere, concerning setting of geological formations, geological structures and physical status of the Earth. From a practical point of view, they have substantial importance in the field of oil, gas, ore, other commodities and geothermal exploration, as well as in safety assessment in communication and in health risk, in fresh water supply, in monitoring of natural hazardous process, in global climatic changes and in many other issues.

GEOMIND system has been developed to meet the needs of people and organizations who will potentially use geophysical data. GEOMIND is a web based information service (portal) to search, display and order geophysical data on international level. The GEOMIND Portal provides multilingual platform to utilize geophysical data without limitations of national boundaries.

The GEOMIND system serves:

• Government and local authorities,
• Exploration, mining and constructing companies, 
• Insurance companies, 
• Researchers and students, 
• Individual citizens.

The GEOMIND system provides metadata on vertical electrical soundings, time domain electromagnetics, magnetotelluric and telluric measurement data, gravimetry, ground and airborn magnetometry, ground and airborn radiometry, complex airborn data, observatory magnetic  pulsation and extensometry data, 2D seismic profiles, 2D seismic field data, 2D tomographic velocity distributions, 3D tomographic velocity arrays, stacking velocity functions, deep seismic refraction sections, seismological data, borehole logging and petrophysical data.

The GEOMIND metadata profile is compliant to ISO 19115 and 19139. The metadata comprise descriptive and geographical information of measured source and derived (processed, interpreted etc.) data. New geophysical extensions have been introduced to the existing ISO standard, like metadata classes (Geophysical object, Geophysical object set, Report), codelist elements (roles, date types, hierarchy level etc.), new metadata section (geophysical info) and new codelists (object types; object set types, devices etc.).

Usage and Functionality 

Several organizations could provide their geophysical databases through the GEOMIND portal. Any geophysical Organization is able to join GEOMIND and provide their geophysical metadata to the portal by using Metadata Editor's (MDE) tools. Currently, more than 18000 records have been uploaded.

An individual, interested in geophysical data, is able to search (textually or graphically) the GEOMIND system for data available from data providers. Once the user finds data, he/she will be able to directly place their order to the data provider on the GEOMIND portal. A user can order a data by using portal services. After a registered user search in the portal for metadata, he/she is presented with the possibility to get more detailed data or even the raw data from the data provider.

The Metadata Editor is a new Java application that has been developed to collect, edit and manage geophysical metadata at local systems of data providers and automated upload geophysical metadata records to the depository of GEOMIND Portal. It uses XML schemas to be flexible and widely applicable.

The multilingual approach of the GEOMIND project and its outcomes is emphasized. The multilingual support covers: 

• the project website,
• the GEOMIND Metadata profile,
• the multilingual thesaurus for geophysics,
• the multilingual system interface.

GEOMIND and Spatial Geodata Infrastructures

The project will contribute to the development of European Spatial Data Infrastructure (INSPIRE) or to other GSDI in the geological domain. Beyond the GEOMIND project, its products will assist the communication, organization and collaboration between the different EU nations.