Introduction to GeoCloud, national geological information service platform of China

1.   Introduction

GeoCloud is a comprehensive geological information service platform developed and operated by China Geological Survey (CGS) providing various geological information of China. It opens up a new and intellectual mode for geological survey and research in China, providing convenient share of geological data and products. The construction of GeoCloud started from 2015, with the research work supported by the project of geological big data and information service sponsored by CGS. GeoCloud 1.0 was released on 6^th Nov., 2017 and opened up the cloud era of geological survey services of China. After one year’s elaborate development, GeoCloud 2.0 was released on 18^th Nov., 2018, which is served as the new engine of geological survey work accompanied with the mobile terminal.

Up to 24^th Mar., 2019, GeoCloud has served for 504 days without break, with a total number of 20000 registered users, and more than 60000 applications for data and products. Daily visits amount to 10000 through portal and 28000 from mobile devices.

2.   Technical framework

Adopting the typical cloud framework (Fig. 1), GeoCloud contains four layers，namely IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), DaaS (Data as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service).

Figure  1.  The technical framework of GeoCloud.

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2.1   Infrastructures

With the principle of “unified planning, uniform standard, unified platform and unified service window”, GeoCloud uniformly deploys the infrastructures of China Geological Survey, realizing overall management, interconnection and intensive and efficient utilization of distributed infrastructure under the cloud mode. Besides, GeoCloud includes two disaster recovered centers located in different cities.

2.2   Data

It develops a unified service system for DaaS with various types of database and data warehouse software such as Oracle, MS SQL Server, Postgres-XL, Greenplum, etc. on the cloud. The data resource service warehouse provides the unified registration, approval and application for different types of service.

2.3   Platform

Integrating the map service, database interface, middleware API, service middleware such as ArcGIS Server and MapGIS IGServer, GeoCloud develops the data service platform which provides services for all applications, including the mobile resources pool and platform.

2.4   Service

A series of applications are developed to meet different demand, including geological data sharing system, geological product service system, resource and environment bearing capacity assessment system, urban geological information service system, geological hazard information system, groundwater monitoring system, project management system and so on.

3.   Services on GeoCloud

GeoCloud integrates various cloud application systems such as geological survey, business management, data sharing and public services. It provides various professional data and applications for geological survey supporting to solve various geological scientific problems. Besides, geological information and product services are opened to the public on GeoCloud.

3.1   Sharing and serving

By now, there are about 1132 services issued by 160 databases, 7287 geological products and more than 140000 geological library collections serviced on GeoCloud (Table 1). Besides, mobile App is developed containing several functions and cloud tools such as field assistant, geological dictionary, cloud mail, cloud disk, which also provides query and browse services of all the data and products on GeoCloud. All services on GeoCloud are free and available for the public.

Table  1.  Services on GeoCloud.

No.	Category	Containing
1	Geospatial database	In this category, the main contents are geospatial databases of China and neighboring regions, containing more than 100 items of maps with multiple scales and varieties, including geological maps, mineral resources maps, geochemical maps, geophysical maps, water resources maps, land resources maps, and etc.
2	Geological products	It shares and serves almost 4000 geological products including maps, results reports, and etc.
3	Geological popular science	It shares more than 2000 items, offering authoritative channels for increasing public and scientific usage, drawing the public closer to geology and geological research
4	Publications	There is lots of geology publication which are more useful for researching. On GeoCloud, it provides about 1683 items, even if the latest publication is also included
5	Standards and specifications	It provides about 1000 geological industry technical standards and specifications which can be viewed and downloaded on line
6	Geological archive files	From the files types, this category contains more than 140000 files, being divided two items which respectivelyare geological material data and geological data achievements
7	Geological database	It includes geological spatial data involving statigraphy and palarontology, petrochemistry, tectonics, mineral resource, energy resource, hydrological-engineering-environmental geology, and etc. In all, it provides about 1132 services issued by 160 databases
8	Software	It provides geological related software to the public, which can be used for analyzing and processing various geological data on cloud
9	Instruments	It provides about more than 350 items of geological instruments which can be applied for specific usage

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3.2   Service for professionals

To improve the service for professionals, GeoCloud develops a series of service themes such as atlas of natural resources, urban geology, geological hazards, groundwater, black soil ecological geology, coastal geology, etc. Besides, it develops the intelligent geological survey system and platform on GeoCloud supporting the geological survey field work, which has been successfully demonstrated and applied on 13 projects in 2018.

3.3   Service for geological survey management

Systems and tools are developed to improve the administration for geology survey under the cloud environment. On GeoCloud, it realizes “one-stop” cloud service for the administration of geological survey projects, personals, finance, equipments, etc.

3.4   Service to public

To public, GeoCloud provides geological knowledge, information, publication, software and applications for free. It provides an open access to geoscience knowledge and information service.

4.   Outlooks

In the future, we will carry on the construction of GeoCloud, forwarding the spirit of geologists. Applying the technology of cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and so on, we build three key construction tasks involving big data, cloud platform and intelligent application. Technologies of big data provides ideas and methods for geological data management, intelligent applications bring quicker solutions to complex geological problems, and cloud platform supports big data technologies and intelligent applications. We will promote the construction of geological information continuously, aiming to build a process system for modern geological survey.

5.   Contact

GeoCloud, CGS

Address: No. 45 Fuwai Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100037, P.R. China

Tel: +86-(10)-58584301, +86-(10)-56315808

Email: geocloud@mail.cgs.gov.cn

Website: http://geocloud.cgs.gov.cn