A whitepaper from the new upstream data management consultancy, Westheimer, proposes a spatial architecture maturity model (SAMM) to evaluate corporate spatial metadata management (MDM). Westheimer’s thesis is that proper spatial MDM gives end users confidence that spatial data on a map comes from a vetted repository—as opposed to a collection of unmanaged shape files, personal geodatabases, CAD files and un-referenced imagery. Repositories such as PPDM and Schlumberger’s Seabed can store geometry data in tables. But they lack robust methodologies to generate ‘true’ geometric objects. Enterprise level master spatial repositories such as ESRI’s SDE and Oracle Spatial address cartographic meta-data issues such as coordinate reference systems, versions and obscure legacy data formats. SAMM divides the maturity space into six levels from Level 0—or ‘obstructive’ where counter-productive work practices are imposed by management to Level V where spatial data is managed and QC’d on an ongoing basis.
The whitepaper analyses corporate GIS deployments—notably in BP—and describes the ‘compelling’ use of GIS in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) GeoPlatform website in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Public interest in oil and gas spatial information is at an all-time high due to the recently raised profile of the industry as drilling continues to move into new onshore shale plays and deepwater. More from www.oilit.com/links/1009_4.
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