AuScope Grid: ready to take the data plunge

1. AuScope Grid: ready to take the data plunge Bob Haydon AuScope On behalf of many partners

2. What is the AuScope Grid? • AuScope Grid = Open standards based web services infrastructure • 4 year project to build the IT infrastructure • a suite of IT tools for spatial data interoperability • Core ingredient is an information exchange layer that allows “Clients” to connect to “Resources” such as an organisations data • Forms a key component of the AuScope Infrastructure System

3. Simple Message • A large group of research collaborators have worked on the Grid challenge for a decade • Aimed at rectifying the national issue of information access, interoperability and cross-organisational collaboration • A solution has been developed and Australia is well positioned to lead from here • A long road ahead but we have some real and relevant examples of the infrastructure adding value to government organisations • The value will be ever so much greater with involvement by industry end users who rely on the data and information

4. AuScope and the Grid partnership • Improving our science base through research is heavily dependent on science infrastructure • Physical Equipment • Data • Software • IT Infrastructure • Much of this is relies on collaboration • AuScope Research Partners • State and Commonwealth Government CGGC and CSIRO • AuScope Grid Project lead by CSIRO

5. Geo-information bedrock surficial mineral geophysical geochemical geochronologic hyrdrogeological ? We rely on data for decision making Commonwealth State Local Regional Industry Research Data Decision makers .... there has been a national issue of information access, interoperability and cross-organisational collaboration

6. The Grid Challenge over the past decade To rectify the national issue of information access, interoperability and cross-organisational collaboration • Develop a suite of IT tools that permits users across government agencies and research organisations to access spatial data in public archives • Build upon existing open source Information Technologies where possible • Provide web-based tools to discover what data and information exists and to access it, use it and if necessary down load it • Develop a system sufficiently robust to deploy to a range of national organisations in a way that encourages other end users to utilise the services • An Ambitious Objective

7. Geological Surveys through CGGC and Government Geoscience Information Committee Collaborators Universities ANU/RSES Macquarie University UWA Adelaide University Curtin University Melbourne University Monash University Sydney University University of Tasmania University of Queensland Federal Government Agencies and Major Initiatives State Government Agencies for Land Management Qld NRM NSW Dept Lands Tas DPIW WA Landgate Other State Government Agencies participate through: Geoscience Australia

8. Collaboration Required Persistence and Endurance • Large number of diverse organisations • Massive amounts of historical data and information • New IT infrastructure was needed capable of providing new data streams • Users with multitude of workflows • Large range of software applications • Different Organisational IT Infrastructure

9. The infrastructure conceived a decade ago is changing... • Increasing need for: • richer content • diverse content from multiple sources • How do I connect.... mytools to your content? • AuScope’s Infrastructure vision was an exemplar to help people do this a bit easier

10. AuScope Infrastructure System for National Data and Integration a combination of research infrastructure and applied science infrastructure Models and concepts for the Australian Continent Physical equipment and datasets Grid computing infrastructure to access data Software for analysis and modelling National spatial framework 10

11. Tas ACT Vic NT The familiar data interfaces ≠ Vision Data Providers Provider defined clients and formats Users

12. The real story was reflected in hard facts • Up to 80% of project time is spent compiling and manipulating existing data (example from GSV) • 20% of project time available for real work • Effective data integration remained elusive • Information access and exchange issues plagued the minerals industry and Government (as reported in the Minerals Exploration Action Agenda) and significantly impacted many minerals related research objectives which often require nationally integrated datasets. • Cost of data integration is itself a barrier to the research required to justify the investment in data integration • True for geology but pervades the entire resource value chain ...There was a driver to change and ... ... an opportunity through the AuScope investment

13. Two projects addressing national data infrastructure and integration • AuScope Grid: Spatial Information Services Stack • National data sharing infrastructure • AuScope National Virtual Core Library • Hyperspectral mineral mapping Underpinned by Australia’s Global leadership in pre-competitive geoscience data

14. A solution: Open standards based earth science information infrastructure Client AuScope Community Agreements

15. Australia is well positioned to lead… Strong industry State and Territory Surveys and GA Precompetitive data and knowledge Exploration initiatives Strong and active Chief Government Geologists Committee World class research capability Track record DET CRC; CET; Universities Supportive Ministerial Council for Minerals and Petroleum Resources Issues recognised and reported in the Minerals Exploration Action Agenda A national competitive advantage

16. Some excellent progress has been made on a long road • NVCL – hyperspectral data from core • Earth Resources – mineral occurrence data • CSIRO MDU Earth model • Historical Reports • Yilgarn Geochemistry • National Geophysics - grav/mag/rads grids and data • WA CoE 3D Mineral Mapping • BOM Weather station data • Coastal Biophysical Modeller

17. Examples CSIRO MDU and BOM

18. Discovery Portal – combine and visualise data in different formats from different hosts

19. AuScope National Virtual Core Library http://portal.auscope.org/gmap.html http://nvcl.csiro.au 19

20. Unlocking National Resource Value will involve ongoing collaboration : resembles a national JV National surveys / GA A national ‘JV’ Unlocking National Resource Value Explorers Innovation & education

21. The future • An Australian Geoscience portal • More earth resources-related datasets • Broader contribution of data supported by industry users • An e-Research infrastructure to provide • data management and assimilation tools to integrate, synthesise and access information and knowledge from these large and distributed data stores • infrastructure to meet future demand by enhancing multi-dimensional 3/4D data access via the web portals • a framework that will allow online access to larger volume data sets and enable processing at their highest resolution with improved model fidelity.

22. Conclusions • Federated Spatial Information Services data infrastructure is now a reality • The community has an opportunity to embrace these developments • We have only scratched the surface • Not just added another dataset or portal to the science community, but provided a new way of doing science, a true infrastructure development • We can now transform the way that data and data products are identified, shared, integrated, and reused, to unlock the benefits of true integration of research efforts across the minerals value chain