geoCore - QGIS plugin for creating graphical representations of geoscientific drillings.

Authors Gerrit Bette (1); Moritz Mennenga (2)

  1. T-Systems on site services GmbH
  2. Niedersächsisches Institut für historische Küstenforschung, Viktoriastr. 26/28, 26386 Wilhelmshaven

The QGIS Plugin geoCore is under development by T-Systems on site services GmbH based on the idea of the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research Wilhelmshaven (NIhK).

Citation

G. Bette & M. Mennenga 2020: t-systems-on-site-services-gmbh/geoCore v0.7 (Version v0.7). Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4347497

Aim

The aim of the plugin is to create a flexible and easy way to display and export drilling profiles according to your own layout in QGIS. It allows the user to account for the different types of representation and across different sciences. This means that the uniformly processed data can be used by different users according to their specifications.

An example data set is available in the github-Repository.

Preconditions

In the following, the necessary basics and specifications are presented to ensure that the plugin can be used.

Data

Download example data

As a basis for displaying coring data, the plugin requires a specific format. Two sets are required. The former is a vector-layer whose attribute table must be organized as follows:

ID xcoord ycoord zcoord name
1 32485574.7100 5949969,4730 1.459 core 1
2 32485583.1799 5950059.7089 1.308 core 2
3 32485604.7038 5950117.1169 1.400 core 3

The coordinates must be in a geographic coordinate system with a metric scale.

A text file is also required in which the data on the individual layers of the boreholes are available (layer data). To define the name of the text file, that will be used with the shapefile you have to define it in the config.yml in the plugin folder. The content of the columns petrography, description and color are used to define the display of the profiles and are linked to geoCore.yml, the adaptation of which is defined in the following section, Layout-Table. The layer data must be structured as follows. The ID corresponds to the ID in the master data table:

ID layerno petrography facies comment colour depth_from depth_to group
1 1 S(u4, h, lam, as) st gr 0 10 1
1 2 T(u1, wood) it br 10 30 2
1 3 U(fs) ge 30 35 3
1 4 G gru 35 36.5 4
2 1 S(u2) gr 0 20 1
2 2 T br 20 43 2
2 3 U(t1) ge 43 58 3
2 4 H gru 58 90 4
3 1 S(u2) gr 0 20 1
3 2 T br 20 43 2
3 3 U(t1) ge 43 58 3
3 4 H gru 58 90 4
  • ID -> Key value that is also available in the drilling table
  • layerno -> layernumber (unique per hole)
  • petrography -> description of the shift. The definition is determined by the * geoCore.yml * (see below)
  • facies -> only for the description text
  • comment -> is used in addition to the description of the layer on the drilling profile
  • colour -> Description of the color of the layer. The definition is determined by the * geoCore.yml * (see below)
  • depth_from -> Top of the layer in centimeters below the terrain surface
  • depth_to -> Lower edge of the layer in centimeters below the terrain surface
  • group -> Value for grouping layers of different profiles (acre in profile 1 corresponds to acre in profile 2)

Layout-Table

The layout is defined by geoCore.yml in the plugin directory. This is divided into three areas.

boxes

In boxes, the width of the boxes that represent a layer is defined based on the entry in petrography. In this step the value that is not in brackets is used. longname is used for the entry in the description field next to the layer of the profile.

ID layerno petrography
1 1 S(u4, h, lam, as)

In the yml file, the abbreviation is used to define the real name, which can be found in the description, and the width of the box.


boxes:
    S: #shortname
        longname: Sand
        width: 1.5
    T: #shortname
        longname: Ton
        width: 1.0
        

description

The description field is also defined by the petrography column, but the values in the brackets are used here. Their definition can also be found in geoCore.yml. longname defines the text module that is displayed next to the profile in the description field. texture contains the link to .svg vector graphics, which are stored in the symbols subdirectory. If available, these are inserted in the respective boxes of the layers (this function is still under construction).

ID layerno petrography
1 1 S(u4, h, lam, as)

descriptions:
    u4: #shortname
        longname: stark schluffig
    h: #shortname
        longname: humos
    fs: #shortname
        longname: feinsandig
    lam: #shortname
        longname: laminiert
        texture: symbols/lam.svg
    as: #shortname
        longname: articulated shell
        

colors

Also defined by the geoCore.yml is the color in which the respective box is displayed. Not shown, but longname is available for better traceability. In the field code the RGB value of the respective color is given. Predefined colors from color charts can also be used.

ID layerno color
1 1 gr

colors:
    gr: #shortname
        longname: grau
        code: "#c9c8c8"
    br: #shortname
        longname: braun
        code: "#b6afa1"
        

Usage

The plugin is still under development - see issues

If all files are available as described and the definitions are entered as required, the plug-in can be used. First, the shape file and the corresponding text file with the layer data must be imported. It is now possible to display a single or multiple profiles. To do this, select all the desired boreholes with the QGIS Selection Tool and click on the geoCore icon (or choose the menu entry Plugins -> geoCore -> Show drilling profile). A dialog opens showing the drilling profile(s). geoCore’s user interface is kept very simple and should be self-explanatory. A right click on the dialog opens the context menu which allows to export the profile as SVG. Furthermore you can rearrange the drilling profiles if you are showing multiple at once. If the group parameter contains an entry for several profiles, the layers are automatically connected. Using the mouse wheel you can zoom in and out. The middle mouse button allows for panning. This is just like navigating the QGIS map.