Cyberinfrastructure for collecting and integrating geology field data: Community priorities and research agenda

In order to address the most important Earth science questions, field scientists must incorporate new cyberinfrastructure (CI) technologies into their workflow and replace some of the traditional, analog methodologies that still prevail today (e.g., notebook, pen, and transit compass). Geologic field data collected via analog methods are far less likely to be fully digitized and integrated with other datasets. Cyberinfrastructure allows data longevity beyond the original investigator. Digital platforms that facilitate data sharing will help break down the artificial barriers between subfields within the Earth sciences and allow researchers to ask new types of questions and provide the means to contend with those that were previously unanswerable. Close communication and coordination between field-based geologists and computer scientists will facilitate the best cyberinfrastructure and data management for the future. Through a National Science Foundation (NSF)/EarthCube–funded project, discussions between these two groups of scientists were undertaken in a field setting so that computer scientists could better understand the type of data geologists collect and how those geoscientists desire to integrate various types of data into their workflow. Similarly, geologists gained a better understanding of how computer scientists can represent, manipulate, and archive complex data in data management systems, with potential solutions to field data challenges. These discussions centered on the unique issues faced by the geological community regarding the collection, storage, manipulation, representation, and integration of field-based data.