Digital geological mapping at the British Geological Survey : the “Sigma Mobile” system

Thomas, R.J.; Goodenough, K.M.. 2011 Digital geological mapping at the British Geological Survey : the “Sigma Mobile” system. In: 23rd Colloquium of African Geology, Johannesburg, 8-14 Jan 2011. Geological Society of Africa, 394. (Unpublished)

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Abstract/Summary

Since about 2000, a team at the British Geological Survey (BGS) has developed a digital geological mapping system, called “SIGMA mobile”. The system comes as an add-on to ARC-GIS software and uses a customised MS Access database. It is simple to use, intuitive and only requires fairly basic ARCGIS and MS Access skills. The current version runs with ARC-GIS versions 9.2 to 10. At BGS, SIGMA mobile is run in the field on a physically robust, watertight Xplore tablet computer with a 10.4” screen, 1.2 GHz processor and a 40 Gb hard drive. The computer has a built-in GPS which continuously tracks and updates its position and shows the current location on the screen, superimposed on whatever data layer is visible (e.g. topographic map, historic geological map, satellite image etc). The computer comes with a small USB mouse and keyboard, but in the field a digital touch-screen stylus is used for data entry. Text can be entered freehand (intelligent handwriting recognition), or by touching a virtual on-screen keyboard. An open-source version of SIGMA mobile is available for download free from the BGS website (www.bgs.ac.uk)

Item Type:	Publication - Conference Item (Paper)
Programmes:	BGS Programmes 2010 > BGS Corporate
Additional Keywords:	Digital Geological Mapping, SIGMA Mobile
NORA Subject Terms:	Earth Sciences
Date made live:	16 Mar 2011 14:36 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/13772

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