The role of data modelling in a modern geological survey

Data models are key elements in understanding the meaning (semantics) of data and communicating the information requirements for geoscientific-environmental research. The British Geological Survey (BGS) models its data to provide an understanding of: the organisational information requirements and its communication; the nature of its data independent of their physical representations and to facilitate the access of the data across multiple outlets. Generally, the components of an optimal model are that it has: structural validity, simplicity, expressibility, nonredundancy, shareability, integrity and can be presented diagrammatically. However, trade-offs are sometimes necessary to avoid the loss of simplicity in trying to achieve greater expressibility in a data model. The paper explores the role of data modelling at the British Geological Survey (BGS) in developing an integrated geoscientific data model, a component of a multi-tiered data architecture.