State Surveys Adopting GIS
The Ohio Division of Geological Survey as One Example
State geological surveys also are starting to move data
into geographic information systems (GIS).
The Ohio Division of Geological Survey, as one example,
is building one master database to house all its information, including
locations and attributes for the approximately 260,000 oil and gas
wells in Ohio and the state's production data, according to Jim
McDonald, GIS specialist and geologist for the Ohio Division of
Geological Survey.
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State geological surveys also are starting to move data
into geographic information systems (GIS).
The Ohio Division of Geological Survey, as one example,
is building one master database to house all its information, including
locations and attributes for the approximately 260,000 oil and gas
wells in Ohio and the state's production data, according to Jim
McDonald, GIS specialist and geologist for the Ohio Division of
Geological Survey.
The database is being developed in cooperation with
the Ohio Division of Mineral Resources Management, the state's regulatory
agency.
"Now geologists can download information from our
Web site versus coming into the office and wading through data,"
McDonald said. "The number of people visiting our offices has significantly
declined in the last six years since we started digitizing our data."
In addition to the petroleum-related information
the Ohio survey has data in digital form for other mineral industries
as well. Plus, by the end of this summer the survey will have bedrock
geology maps digitized and will begin releasing those to the public
on both a 1-to-24,000 scale and a 1-to-500,000 scale.
The survey is planning to scan all its geophysical
logs beginning next year, he said.
"GIS provides access to an amount of data that would
have been impossible to gather in the past," he added. "This technology
makes data that was always available more important and meaningful
simply because it is more accessible.
"As a result, people using the data can do interpretations
more rapidly, look at different hypotheses," he said, "ultimately
making them better explorers."