The capture and dissemination of integrated 3D geospatial knowledge at the British Geological Survey using GSI3D software and methodology

14 The Geological Surveying and Investigation in 3 Dimensions (GSI3D) software tool and 15 methodology has been developed over the last 15 years. Since 2001 this has been in 16 cooperation with the British Geological Survey (BGS). To-date over a hundred BGS 17 geologists have learned to use the software that is now routinely deployed in building 18 systematic and commercial 3D geological models. The success of the GSI3D methodology 19 and software is based on its intuitive design and the fact that it utilizes exactly the same data 20 and methods, albeit in digital forms, that geologists have been using for two centuries in 21 order to make geological maps and cross-sections. The geologist constructs models based on 22 a career of observation of geological phenomena, thereby incorporating tacit knowledge into 23 the model. This knowledge capture is a key element to the GSI3D approach. In BGS GSI3D 24 is part of a much wider set of systems and work processes that together make up the 25 cyberinfrastructure of a modern geological survey. The GSI3D software is not yet designed 26 to cope with bedrock structures in which individual stratigraphic surfaces are repeated or 27 inverted, but the software is currently being extended by BGS to encompass these more 28 complex geological scenarios. A further challenge for BGS is to enable its 3D geological 29 models to become part of the semantic web using GML application schema like GeoSciML. 30 The biggest benefits of widely available systematic geological models will be an enhanced 31 public understanding of the subsurface in 3D, and the teaching of geoscience students. 32 33