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Exploration & Production: The Oil & Gas Review - 2003, Volume 2
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The Status
Enterprise geographic information systems (GIS) must be mandated from the top down by management to allocate proper resources. It must also respond to user demand as they access corporate data repositories. Implementation happens at that midpoint, where systems allow feed geographic information throughout the corporation. This article explores the challenges users have experienced in adopting standards in GIS, in support of the enterprise.
Over the past decade, industries had mixed success in deploying petroleum, financial and other data in robust database management systems. They did not have the resources to build all of their applications using any single database. Vendors introduced commercial off-the-shelf products that provided integration methods at a business object level – among these are enterprise resource planning, customer information systems and financial systems. As a result, the oil industry in particular and the GIS industry in general realised that integration must happen at a business object level. The industry thus moved towards object-relational systems with published interfaces (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Object-relational
Data Model for the Pipeline Industry
The Tools
An indication of ESRI’s success in this new world is the adoption by users of its data-modelling schemas. ESRI puts them in the public domain with the assistance of industry groups (see http://support.esri.com/datamodels). Essential data models in the form of templates are being developed by user groups: an iterative process of refining and testing puts templates in the users’ hands, and its usage and acceptance will determine whether or not they become a standard. Users can take certain parts relevant to them, as well as combine other templates, into a set of features that meet specific business needs. Vendors also have a common set of specifications against which they can customise applications. Data models are thus published and maintained separately from users and vendors, who customise them at will but always access templates from a common source (see Figure 2).
In addition, ESRI GIS comes with tools to create, maintain and publish metadata. Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Jack Dangermond, likes to use the metaphor of card catalogues in libraries in which the public finds books in the same way that users find their geodata when properly documented using metadata. This process helps meet eXtensible Markup Language (XML), US Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), International Standards Organization (ISO) and other standards. Specialised servers also allow metadata to be published throughout the enterprise.
Figure 2:ESRI Templates Allow Custom Database Integration
The Geography Network is tailored for ease of use (see Figure 2, http://www.geographynetwork.com): ESRI publishes data that is driven by metadata catalogues over the Internet (World Wide Web); corporations can also create the same on intranets (secure corporate networks). The emphasis here is on accessibility and ease of use, since Web pages can be tailored to hide arcane details in the back office (network and database management system that store vital corporate information).
Category:
Geosciences
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Andrew Zolnai is Petroleum/Pipeline
Industry Solutions Manager at ESRI
in Redlands, California. He joined
ESRI in 2000 and is responsible for
industry marketing in petroleum
and pipeline. From 1994 to 2000
He worked at Landmark
Halliburton, where he was
responsible for support, training
and project management in
petroleum applications and
geographic information systems
(GIS) worldwide. Prior to this Mr
Zolnai was involved in various joint
ventures and consulting, mapping
and GIS in petroleum between
1986 and 1994. From 1982 to
1986, he worked for Shell Canada
and the Geological Survey of
Canada, in exploration and as a
field geologist. He has been a
professional geologist with The
Association of Professional
Engineers, Geologists and
Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA)
since 1984 and an active practicing
geologist with the American
Association of Petroleum Geologists
(AAPG) since 1979. Mr Zolnai
received his MSc from Queen's
University, Kingston, Canada, in
1982 and BSc from the University
of Calgary, Canada, in 1980 and
has since undertaken continuing
education in computing, GIS and
project management.
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