HR: 1340h
AN: T13A-1338    [Abstracts]
TI: Parkfield Unified Visualization Project: A Repository of Geospatial Data and Portable Toolset for its Visualization
AU: * Wurman, G
EM: gilead.wurman@asu.edu
AF: Department of Geological Sciences, M/C 1404 Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404
AU: Arrowsmith, J R
EM: ramon.arrowsmith@asu.edu
AF: Department of Geological Sciences, M/C 1404 Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404
AU: Conner, J S
EM: jeffrey.conner@asu.edu
AF: Department of Geological Sciences, M/C 1404 Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404
AB: Extensive geophysical studies have been conducted over the past decades in and around Parkfield, CA. These studies, while significant on their own, often fail to take into account the full body of pre-existing geophysical data for the Parkfield region. This is due in large part to the difficulty in integrating much of this data, which in turn results from a lack of a centralized, standardized geospatial repository in which all the available geophysical and geological data are stored in consistent units and in a consistent, georeferenced coordinate system. We are developing the Parkfield Unified Visualization Project (PUVP) which will be just such a repository, with the added benefits of easy, WWW-driven access and an in-house Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML) generator to allow visualization of multiple data sets over the web. The data are stored georeferenced, and queried using the GRASS GIS. The PUVP database currently contains 30-meter USGS DEM coverage over a 65x85 km study area, with USGS DOQQ coverage over approximately 70% of this area. Additional contributed data includes landslide data, a digitized trace of the 1966 rupture, seismic p-velocity model results, and historical seismicity data from the Northern California Earthquake Data Center. The user queries this data via a Java web form which runs a series of Perl scripts to extract this data from the GRASS database in either GRASS or ARC/ESRI format. The scripts also convert this data into VRML directives that can be displayed using any web browser with a VRML plugin, or on a GeoWall. We chose VRML as our visualization environment for several reasons. Foremost, it is quite portable and allows a wide variety of users to bring the different datasets into a common visualization environment so that non-intuitive relationships between different observations or model results can be made and interpretations better illustrated. In addition, unlike several other 3D visualization environments like Vis5d+ or the NVIZ tool available within GRASS, VRML has no single intended use, and is therefore much more adaptible to the needs of the project. For example, because VRML has no native resolution or axis orientation, multiple datasets with diverse resolutions can be displayed in multiple orientations in the same scene, without aliasing or over/undersampling. This project is completely open source, and we hope will be built up by contributions of both data and code by the user community. The repository will continue to grow, residing on a GEON data node at ASU with continued user input and contributions. Simultaneously, the programs that run queries and visualization of the data will continue to expand in capability and grow in sophistication, thanks to the continuing efforts of the user community.
UR: http://activetectonics.la.asu.edu/Parkfield/vis/
DE: 9820 Techniques applicable in three or more fields
DE: 8094 Instruments and techniques
DE: 0910 Data processing
SC: Tectonophysics [T]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting