Geological information systems in action

During the early 1900’s the British Geological Survey developed and implemented a digital mapping system utilising GIS technology. This system enables the generation of a variety of products from a geological database containing spatial and relational data. Output includes high quality map products and digital datasets derived from the database. The latter can be incorporated into other digital systems for use in geological manipulation, such as the surface modelling. This allows the data collectors to visualise their data in different formats and to combine geology with other types of information, to create new datasets and facilitates the visualisation of varied and diverse data within a single system. During the past 4 years, the methodologies developed for the Digital Map Production System (DMPS) have been applied to several geoscience projects. These projects include i) the adaption of the BGS system for geoscientific programmes in other organisations and ii) the development of PC GIS for low cost, user friendly manipulation of geoscientific data. Where high quality map production and efficient management of large datasets have been required, the GIS/database design has been modified and system analogues to the DMPS built for the UK and overseas applications. The basic design has been customised to fit the requirements of other organisations, creating geosciences dataset management systems to suit the specific data and investigation needs. Transfer of geological data into PC‐based GIS has enabled geoscientists, with minimal GIS expertise, to view and manipulate their own data. This gives those with the greatest knowledge of that data the power to analyse it in digital system. The relative low cost of PC systems has allowed methods and procedures developed for the BGS DMPS to be customized, more widely used and applied to requirements for digital data management in developing countries.