Symbology is important in maps, as maps are inherently the symbolic representation, in scale, of the real world or a planet.
For years geologic maps have been produced by DTP programs, and geologic maps were mere drawings, as in the previous century, when paper was the only media available for map's distribution.
Nowadays, GIS and web-based sloppy maps are spread, and this requires geo-located geology.
However, we all like beautiful maps, and good looking geologic maps have correct and readable symbols.... so herein we fill the gap!
Enjoy!
Some national-level geologic surveys published the symbol set they are using in their official map production. BGS and USGS did a great job in this sense.
Current published definitions are:
- United States Geological Survey (USGS): Digital Cartographic Standard for Geologic Map Symbolization
- Britih Geological Survey (BGS): BGS Map Symbols and Lithological Ornaments
Andrea Nass and others implemented the section 25 - Planetary Geology Features for ESRI's software. In this project we are aligning the symbol-set to other formats supported by other software packages.
Software developments bring also development of different digital formats for files. This is valid also for symbology, and so as 2016 there is not a simple solution that will work for every GIS/mapping package around. Hopefully the OpenGis consortium is providing specification for an interoperable open format that will make life easier for everyone once it will be implemented in every software package. But until this is not true, we can keep in sync different formats, that will dress the maps following official specifications (in our case the FGDC one)
The directories of this project are orienteed to the software package and format definition.
- QGis: QGis' format, based on XML
- ESRI: ESRI's own format
- SVG: The scalable vector format is supported by QGis.
- SE/SLD: The OpenGIS® Symbology Encoding Standard provides a way to describe symbology indipendentley from the software being used. SLD allows to apply Symbology Encoding (SE) to the maps. QGis and ESRI's ArcServer supports SLD
- docs: Documents directory, where the pdf of FGDC is kept and also other support documents.
Development for a library of geologic symbols for QGis is in the geologic-symbols-qgis repository, were you will find istructions on how to install the library in your computer.
Follow the instructions in this paper:
- A. Nass, S. van Gasselt, R. Jaumann, H. Asche, Implementation of cartographic symbols for planetary mapping in geographic information systems, Planetary and Space Science, Volume 59, Issues 11-12, September 2011, Pages 1255-1264, ISSN 0032-0633, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2010.08.022. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063310002606)
## Other GIS packages
We are currently working on the packages above. Contributions are enthusiastically welcome.
The problem of having a meaningful symbology in modern softwares has been in the air from a while. Similarly to this project some other example have been available and are actively creating interesting solutions.
- QGis Geologic Symbols project from Ryan Mikulovsky at ucdavis, 2010
- Stefan Revets project on SourceForge, 2015-2016
- FGCD Geologic Patterns for the Web by Daven Quinn, 2017
All the symbols developed here are distributed with a Creative Common 3.0 Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) license.
This means that you can use, copy, distribute and improve this symbols BUT you might be kind to cite our work as reported in the legal statement below:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
2012-2016 (c) Andrea Nass, Alessandro Frigeri
Because, we are working for you! Seriously, developing this it is a time-consuming process - but we believe this project will results in beautiful and more understandable maps abroad.
Use of digital material of this site:
- Andrea Nass and Alessandro Frigeri. Geologic Symbols for digital mapping and GIS. Retrieved [Today's Date] from https://github.com/afrigeri/geologic-symbols
ESRI geologic symbols for planetary have been produced by Andrea Nass, and described in a scientific paper:
- A. Nass, S. van Gasselt, R. Jaumann, H. Asche, Implementation of cartographic symbols for planetary mapping in geographic information systems, Planetary and Space Science, Volume 59, Issues 11-12, September 2011, Pages 1255-1264, ISSN 0032-0633, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2010.08.022. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063310002606)