Development of a Hydrogeologic Geodatabase for Determining the Availability of Selected Borehole Geophysical Parameters

When conducting an investigation of the subsurface a geoscientist will often locate specific borehole geophysical data for the area of study. This process of locating spatially where the geophysical logs have been conducted and what specific parameters have been run in each logging suite can often be difficult and take the investigator several hours or even days depending upon the size of the study area. As part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan’s (CERP) Aquifer Storage and Recovery feasibility study, Sonic logs need to be identified in order to convert the vertical axis of time in seismic reflection studies to an axis of depth. In an effort to eliminate this step and save geoscientists time and money a process for building a functional hydrogeologic geodatabase is proposed that would allow a GIS user to efficiently locate and identify borehole geophysical parameters of interest within his/her study area. Such a hydrogeologic geodatabase was constructed and applied to a study area contained within a ten-mile radius of Lake Ockeechobee, located in southern Florida. The spatial and non-spatial data were downloaded from the South Florida Water Management District’s online environmental database (DBHYDRO) and were imported in Microsoft Access for the creation of a functional geodatabase. A comprehensive examination of the data quality showed that ~40% of the geophysical data posted on DBHYDRO had incorrectly listed the depths at which the data was collected. After the data inspection was completed a one-to-many relationship class was created to allow for querying between the two datasets. Using the geodatabase 9 of the 44 wells with geophysical data were quickly identified as having the Sonic logs needed for time-to-depth conversions. The percentage of wells with Sonic data (~20%) was not surprising considering the time and money it costs to run this particular geophysical log. The construction and utilization of a geodatabase as an alternative to conventional data storage methods has proven to save significant time and money when locating specific geophysical parameters.