IUGS Commission for the Management and Application of Geoscience Information (CGI)

Explore our website for resources about data sharing, standards, and best practice in geoscience information management.

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CGI-IUGS

CGI Secretariat

About Us

CGI’s mission

To foster the interoperability and exchange of geoscience information, by active community leadership, collaboration, education, and the development and promotion of geoscience information standards and best practice.

CGI’s vision

  • that geoscience information can be exchanged, understood, and used without limitation,
  • that geoscience information can be readily integrated with standards-based information from other knowledge domains,
  • that geoscience information is semantically rich and structured to enable seamless interaction in all environments,
  • that global education about the management, modelling, exchange, and use of geoscience information enables its best possible application,
  • for the benefit of all society.

CGI Structure

CGI Structure

Our Partners

OneGeology

OneGeology’s aim is to create dynamic digital geological map data for the world. It is an international initiative of the geological surveys of the world who are working together to achieve an ambitious and exciting venture. The OneGeology organisation endorses and uses the GeoSciML data transfer standard and has worked closely with CGI in providing a platform for the use and promotion of CGI data standards.

Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)

CGI is a strong supporter of the open standards framework established by OGC. CGI and OGC cooperate under a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2013 under which the future development of GeoSciML will be undertaken in an OGC Standards Working Group (SWG).

Infrastructure for Spatial information in the European Community (INSPIRE)

The INSPIRE directive have chosen CGI standards - GeoSciML and EarthResourceML - as the mandated European data transfer standards for geological and mineral resources information. The technical working groups of the INSPIRE directive have cooperated with CGI in the development of data standards and geoscience vocabularies.

US Geoscience Information Network (USGIN)

USGIN is an operational federated information-sharing framework that helps individuals and agencies develop scalable, interoperable, web-accessible data-sharing networks. USGIN participates in the development of standards, practices, and protocols through ESIP, CGI and the OGC, and deploys systems using these to exchange geoscientific data over the Internet using free-and-open-source software.

CGI Council

Chair

Co-Secretary General

Treasurer

Councillor

Website Admin

Past Chair

News

  • Newsletter Issue 11

    Welcome to Edition #11 of the CGI Newsletter. In this edition we report on the progress of the CGI Working Groups and the recent meetings of CGI members.

  • Newsletter Issue 10

    Welcome to Edition #10 of the CGI Newsletter. In this edition we report on the progress of the CGI Working Groups and the recent meetings of CGI members.

  • Newsletter Issue 9

    Welcome to Edition #9 of the CGI Newsletter. In this edition we report on the progress of the CGI Working Groups and the recent meetings of CGI members.

  • Meetings on the Status and Future of Global Geoscience Information Standards

    CGI in partnership with IUGS’s Deep-time Digital Earth Project are hosting in-person meetings in Suzhou, China, 7-10 November 2023, on the Status and Future of Global Geoscience Information Standards.

  • Newsletter Issue 8

    Welcome to Edition #8 of the CGI Newsletter. In this edition we report on the progress of the CGI Working Groups and the recent meetings of CGI members.

Working Groups

  • DDE Standards Task Group

    A collaborative task group implementing geoscience information standards for IUGS’s flagship Deep-time Digital Earth Project

    active

  • EarthResourceML

    A CGI working group developing and publishing data standards for mineral resources and mining information

    active

  • GeoSciML

    A collaborative OGC-CGI working group for the GeoSciML geological data standard

    active

  • OGC-CGI Geoscience Domain Working Group

    connecting people to develop, improve and promote technologies for geoscience data description and sharing

  • Geoscience Terminology Working Group (GTWG)

    A CGI working group developing and publishing multi-lingual geoscience vocabularies

    active

  • Metadata

    Although the CGI does not have any formal working group concerned with geoscience metadata it was felt that it could help geoscience organisations develop their metadata implementations by providing a forum for posting …

    active

  • GIRAF

    Pan-African geoscience information knowledge network of Geological Surveys, universities and companies

    concluded

  • Regional Working Groups

    The CGI council recognises the potential need to institute working groups that will address the specialised technical or scientific needs of regions defined by culture, geography or politics and encourages the …

    active

  • Multilingual Thesaurus Working Group

    The mission of the MLTWG was to enable the global exchange of geoscience information with the help of a common multilingual core vocabulary by developing and expanding the Multilingual Thesaurus of Geosciences.

    concluded

  • Interoperability Working Group

    The Interoperability Working Group was formed to develop data standards to facilitate the query and exchange of geological information between data providers for environmental, scientific, legal and social purposes.

    concluded

Publications

Contact

Join CGI

Map of members, click to enlarge. There are currently over 340 CGI members from 77 countries

CGI is run on a voluntary basis by the CGI Council, a small group of people from geological organisations around the world.

CGI would like to have representatives in every country in the world and membership is open to all whose nations and organisations are part of International Union of Geological Sciences.

CGI welcomes membership applications from all whose nations and organisations are part of The International Union of Geological Sciences.

If you have any feedback, comments, or suggestions, please Contact Us.

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