Characterisation of a hydrogeological setting is a multi-faceted complex task. The assessment of usefulness and quality of relevant data is a major challenge. Statistical analysis and visual exploration of the datasets demand practical support by computer applications. Although a variety of software for this purpose is freely available nowadays, they require a good understanding of the technology or programming language for application in complex hydrogeological settings. Thus, integrated proprietary software products are often used to analyse and particularly provide high-quality visualisation of the system. However, these software tools are typically desktop programs with a strict licensing scheme and a limited extensibility and lack of interoperability with other applications.
We present an open and free to use web-based (platform independent) framework to enable retrieval, exploration and visualisation of hydro-climate time series data as well as three-dimensional geological information via a web browser. How distributed data and processing services can be linked to prepare an on-demand 3D visualisation of geological and hydrological data is demonstrated. A flexible toolbox design enables extensibility via open standards.
The method developed is applied to a case study area presented (s. figure), which is the Horowhenua district in the Manawatu-Wanganui region. Available datasets of 3D geology, hydrology and hydrogeology are combined and serve as example data for demonstrating the framework.
The slides of the presentations are now made accessible here (click here).
The full ISI-indexed conference paper is available here (click here).
