The Challenge

Borehole inventories (from oil and gas wells, test holes, water wells, etc.) currently are compiled and served locally through individual State Geological Surveys and USGS databases and repositories. Querying these resources requires a separate search within each application. While these resources are in unique databases, many of the components are contextually similar and could be mapped to a common index for enhanced search and discoverability. The National Index of Borehole Information (NIBI) would serve as an index platform for this borehole information with links to access the borehole data. NIBI would facilitate search, discovery, access, and re-use of these highly valuable and distributed geological and geophysical resources.

Our Solution

IHDS is working with the USGS National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program (NGGDPP) in partnership with the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) and the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (NCGMP) and in collaboration with state geological surveys to develop NIBI. NIBI has a flexible, intuitive, web interface with map and text-search capabilities. NIBI currently indexes a representative suite of web services and static datasets which are the example for the full National Index of Borehole Information.