vizworldfeaturegomGeovisualization is the visual representation of the surface and inside of the earth, an inherently three-dimensional and evolving entity, to understand a geospace and how variables in that space change with time. In this post and some future ones, I will explore earth visualization methods and philosophies, and invite you to help extend this community’s capabilities.

Two weeks ago, I attended the Where2.0 conference in San Jose, California, the fifth annual three-day gathering of location-based technologists. To know what got other attendees excited, search #where20 in Twitter and watch the conference videos. There was much talk about the latest platform or API with which to add location awareness to a web or mobile application, but the scientist in me was enthralled with novel ways to visualize data through imagination and related programming. Specifically, I was impressed by the presented work of Maps From Scratch by Stamen Design, Urban Mapping’s transit trees and animations (video) and Sense Networks’ CitySense 4D heatmaps (video).

Velodyne Lidar Demo At Where2.0
Velodyne Lidar Demo at Where 2.0

While these are beautiful, innovative mapping techniques, they remind you not to depend on Google or another major map API to the point where your perception is trained into certain ways of viewing our world. In other words, the data and their relationships ought to dictate how we look at it, rather than a pre-canned visualization defining the data. Again, I fully support (open) standards, but let’s not standardize our way into a small dark box. Dynamic and relevant visualization as well as “transforming access, usability and collaboration,” to quote ESRI’s Jack Dangermond, is all too important in the location-based, four-dimensional and data-intensive field of geoscience.

Another geovisualization concern relates to the use of 3D and simulation tools at the end of a workflow, instead of through its entirety. Until recently, I worked for an oil major where many interpreters of 3D and time-lapse seismic data cubes insisted on working with 2D maps, cross-sections and well plans, using 3D visualization as just that: to rotate, pan and zoom through the end product of their analysis. This turns out to be an industry-wide phenomenon, brought up and bemoaned at conferences annually. Companies have made various attempts to enable analyzing the data, not just looking at it, in 3D through its lifecycle from seismic acquisition up until and including hydrocarbon production and well abandonment.

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3D seismic interpretation of a deepwater petroleum system

Products such as GeoProbe, GigaViz, 3DDrillView, 3DMove and other internal tools are researched, generated, tested and deployed frequently, but their usage numbers are small compared with 2D counterparts. Most common user complaints are data load/refresh times, effort and time required to climb the learning curve associated with a 3D-interpretation application and “What’s the point if we can do this in 2D?” All this is to emphasize my earlier point of dynamic and relevant user tools along with access and usability. While great strides have been made in the areas of graphics, access of memory and terabytes of storage, software must constantly be updated to reflect these improvements and user interfaces made relevant to geoscientists to whom time is a lot of money. As Michael Heck says in “3D Visualization for Oil and Gas Evolves”:

Advances in both hardware and software are coming together to enable larger data sets, more automated analysis, and more effective presentation of the data on single workstations. Taking advantage of these advances will be challenging for software developers and will require some re-thinking of application architectures and user interfaces.

Also necessary is a strong corporate commitment to 3D data analysis and ensuring these tools are germane, do help provide new insights and keep the user efficient and productive, not using 3D for 3D’s sake.

At Where 2.0, Brandon Martin-Anderson of Urban Mapping said “A map must correspondingly warp and bend according to position and time.” As must all 3D visualizations, according to space, variables and time. Data is king, not the software application. As we go forward in our line of work, let us keep this in mind and our decision-making tools usable, accessible and suitable. If you are working on something cool and new in earth systems visualization, please share with us here at VizWorld.