The Borehole IE will define a domain-neutral semantic for a general concept of borehole

25 June 2018: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) invites interested members & non-members alike to participate in the  OGC Borehole & Associated Data Interoperability Experiment(The Borehole IE).

Geological and geophysical data play a crucial role in contemporary society. Any application that needs to probe the underground relies on these data, including raw material exploration, hydrology, oil & gas, mining, civil engineering, and environmental sciences.

In most cases, the human activities that need to investigate the underground rely on indirect observations gained through geophysical measurements, such as seismic or geoelectrical exploration. However, for direct investigations of the subsurface, and for the verification of indirect measurements and models, drilling is essential.

Despite each geoscientific domain using the same basic engineering feature - a borehole - to directly measure subsurface features, they each have their own set of methods and interests. For example, resource geologists look at rock properties relevant to mineral occurrences; hydrogeologists at water resources; civil engineers at mechanical properties; and the energy sector at fossil fuel potential. Even though several standards already exist to describe a borehole, its associated data and their position along a borehole (including OGC standards), they all restrict themselves to a specific viewpoint.

Involving key implementers and editors of the existing standards, this  OGC Interoperability Experiment aims at defining a domain agnostic and comprehensive (umbrella) vocabulary for a general concept of boreholes, which may eventually become its own specification and be properly reused by various domains when needed.

Based on a wide variety of use cases such as ‘scientific exchange within and across research infrastructures,’ ‘industrial,’ ‘building and construction,’ ‘regulatory obligations,’ and ‘geo-resources monitoring and exploitation,’ it will provide the basis for establishing a better integration of existing standards, and possibly a future common approach for describing boreholes.

The Borehole Interoperability Experiment will define a domain-neutral semantic for a general concept of borehole and produce a public  OGC Engineering Report summarizing the overall cross-domain, inter-standard findings plus recommendations for a best practice implementation that should follow.

If you would like to participate in the Borehole Interoperability Experiment, please contact  Email Contact by July 13th, 2018. The kickoff will be held via telecon on June 27th 14:00-15:00 CEST/12:00 UTC. To learn more about the Borehole IE, including details on the kickoff telecon, visit:  www.opengeospatial.org/projects/initiatives/boreholeie.

 About OGC

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international consortium of more than 525 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that ‘geo-enable’ the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful within any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at  www.opengeospatial.org. 



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