National and International Collaborations for Geoinformatics: Challenges and Lessons Learned from Geoinformatics for Geochemistry

W. Christopher Lenhardt, CIESIN - Columbia Univeristy, USA

Co-Authors: Kerstin Lehnert (LDEO - Columbia University), Sri Vinayagamoorthy (CIESIN - Columbia University), and Steve Goldstein (LDEO - Columbia University)

As argued in reports such as the US NSF Report of Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure, in editorials in Science and elsewhere, the nature of the scientific enterprise is changing fundamentally with the increasing reliance on computers and digital technology. Geochemistry is no exception to this trend. The EarthChem project (www.earthchem.org), a collaboration of the path-breaking data management and information systems for igneous rock geochemistry, PetDB (www.petdb.org), NAVDAT (navdat.kgs.ku.edu), and GEOROC (georoc.mpch-mainz.gwdg.de), which are an integral part of Geoinformatics, illustrate both the value and complexities of attempting to integrate data from disparate systems into a coherent whole. The potential benefits include increased efficiencies for individual researchers and new avenues of scientific inquiry not previously possible. Challenges include semantics, attribution, data provenance, as well as funding options for international collaboration. This paper will review some of these challenges, present some lessons learned, and describe some of the ongoing efforts to internationalize geoinformatics for geochemistry including a description of Earthchem and the proposed development of an ICSU World Data Center for Geochemistry.

Keywords: geoinformatics, geochemistry, data stewardship, cyberinfrastructure