Presentation from AGU 2013 on applying PCCS to the physical object collection of cores and samples at the Geological Survey of Alabama

1. Applying the Emerging
PCCS to Physical Objects in
a Core Repository
A Use Case to Demonstrate Validity of
Broader Community Adaptation
Denise J. Hills, Geological Survey of Alabama
Sarah Ramdeen, UNC-Chapel Hill SILS
H. K. Ramapriyan, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

2. Why Community Standards?
 Data sets prepared and/or preserved with
community-accepted data management
standards are more likely to be used, now and
in the future
 Standards developed using suggestions and
assessments by a diverse community enable
wider adoption without necessarily needing
customization
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

3. Provenance and Context
Content Standard (PCCS)
 ESIP Federation’s Data Stewardship Committee
developed the PCCS matrix based on
community input
 Focus is on “what” needs to be preserved,
rather than “how”
 Developed primarily with NASA/NOAA remote-
sensing missions in mind, but meant to be
easily adapted to other Earth Science data sets
 Current matrix has 8 high-level categories
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

4. PCCS High Level Categories
1) Preflight/Pre-Operations
5) Product Software
2) Products (Data and
6) Algorithm Input
Metadata)
3) Product Documentation
4) Mission Calibration
7) Validation
8) Software Tools
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

5. PCCS – Content Attributes
 Content name
 More detailed definition
and description
 Indication of why the
item needs to be
preserved
 Criteria for quality
 Priority for preservation
of the item
 Source of the content
item during the data life
cycle
 Project phase for
capturing the item
assessment
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

6. About Use Cases
 An approach to develop or refine the functional
specifications of a system
 Intended to be characteristic of classes of
scenarios, although specific real-world examples
may enable fuller understanding of strengths
and weaknesses of what is being tested
 Should attempt to cover the full “data life cycle”
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

7. Data Life Cycle
http://www.dataone.org - DataONE Best Practices Primer
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

8. Use Case: Applying PCCS to a
Core Repository
 Geological Survey of Alabama (GSA) houses
cores, cuttings, and other physical samples
collected from oil and gas wells drilled in the
state
 Repository also contains samples from other
states (e.g., when they de-ascension items),
and from non-energy wells (e.g., drilled solely
for research)
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

9. Core Warehouse
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

10. Why is GSA interested?
 As a state agency, part of our mission is to
make data available to the public
 GSA has not yet standardized records relating to
physical samples, making data discovery
difficult
 As with many other agencies, there is limited
funding for preservation efforts so GSA must be
strategic
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

11. Preservation of Core
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

12. Motivation for GSA to utilize
PCCS
 Better use of resources
 Time
 Money
 Training
 Interoperability (and therefore potential for data
use and reuse) increases
 Discoverability increases with standardization
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

13. Core Repository
Documentation Available
 Spreadsheets containing basic information







Associated O&G well (always)
Location in TRS format (always)
Type of sample (usually)
Internal sample number (sometimes)
Footage and/or unit sampled (occasionally)
Date acquired (rarely)
Related resources (rarely)
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

14. Core Repository
Documentation Available
 From the associated O&G well:
 Location in Lat/Long NAD1927 (almost always)
 Operator information (always)
 Permitting information, including drilling, logging,
and completion dates (almost always)
 Well TD (almost always)
 Drilling logs (sometimes)
 Can often get sample depths from the drilling log
 Related resources (sometimes)
 Core analyses can give further information on units
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

15. Mapping PCCS High Level
Categories to Physical Samples
Current Category
PhysObj Category
1) Preflight/Pre-
1) Site
2) Product Data and
2) Product Data
Operations
Metadata
3) Documentation
4) Calibration
selection/predrilling
3) Documentation and
Metadata
4) Recovery
information*
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

16. Mapping PCCS High Level
Categories to Physical Samples
Current Category
PhysObj Category
5) Product Software
5) Not Applicable*
6) Algorithm Input
6) Conventions
7) Validation
7) Not Applicable*
8) Software Tools
8) Not Applicable*
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

17. Example PhysObj Content
Attributes – Site Selection
 Content name
 Permitting
 Definition and description
 Permit application with
associated documentation
 Why the item needs to be
preserved
 Resource information
about area
 Priority for preservation
 High
 Source of the content
item during the data life
cycle
 Well owner/operator
 Project phase for
capturing the item
 Pre-operational
 QA of content
 Complete and accurate
form
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

18. Example PhysObj Content
Attributes – Data and Metadata
 Content name
 Core Sample | Subsample
 Definition and description
 Physical object collected
 Why the item needs to be
preserved
 Without the object
analyses cannot be done
 QA of content
 Preservation standards
 Priority for preservation
 High
 Source of the content
item during the data life
cycle
 Well owner/operator
(initial) | Repository
(post-ascension)
 Project phase for
capturing the item
 Post-drilling
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

19. Example PhysObj Content
Attributes – Documentation
 Content name
 Metadata
 Definition and description
 Includes location, depth
of measurement,
techniques
 Why the item needs to be
preserved
 Provenance critical
 QA of content
 Comparison to robust
metadata content model
standards
 Priority for preservation
 High
 Source of the content
item during the data life
cycle
 Well owner/operator
(initial) | Regulatory
agency (initial)
|Repository (postascension)
 Project phase for
capturing the item
 During drilling (collection)
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

20. Future Work
 Categories in the PCCS that do not currently
have a clearly identified physical object
counterpart (e.g., Calibration; Validation) need
further examination:
 Has the item not been captured in the current
repository, but should be?
 Has the item been captured, but not identified yet
within the information available?
 Is there a more universal description of the
content category?
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

21. Future Work
 Additional examination of category mapping on
a more detailed level is needed to fully define
each content item
 PCCS should be applied to additional physical
repositories (additional use cases)
 Ask us how!
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

22. Acknowledgements
 The Data Preservation Committee of the ESIP
Federation was fundamental to the development
of the material presented.
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013

23. TOWN HALL
Monday, 6:15-7:15pm
Moscone South 306
Connecting Data Stakeholders
for a Long-term Vision of Data
Stewardship
AGU Annual
Meeting
9 December 2013