A Versatile Alternative for Distribution of Geospatial Data

James S. Cokinos, Vsevolod I. Egorov, John R. Vivian, John W. Haney, and Gordon W. Shields
Fugro Robertson Inc, Houston, TX

From the regional assessment of petroleum provinces to potential field development, geoscientists utilize various geological, geophysical, and geospatial information. Organization, integration and presentation of these different data sets are a necessary part of a workflow. The results of these data analyses are consumed in a cartographic layout of a final map - one of the more important communication and decision-making tools within the petroleum industry.

The maps today are often delivered as multi-feature and multi-layer digital projects. However, these highly informative deliverables are only compatible with certain industry Geographic Information Systems software packages. Thus, the compatibility and portability is limited to the individual companies software inventory.

We demonstrate a new methodology which is based on Geographic Information Systems from ESRI and utilizes TerraGo Technologies extension to create a new product called the GeoPDF. This emerging application adds a versatile alternative for enhanced geospatial collaboration between geoscientists. This new dynamic digital map preserves many advantages of the original GIS project. This includes layering capabilities, attribute information, and a coordinate transformation matrix while solving compatibility and portability issues. This is a high quality but low cost way to easily share geospatial information within the petroleum community via the PDF format.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90078©2008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas