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National geoscience databases contain essential information for the sustainable and environmentally acceptable use of the subsurface. The formats and the working languages are often different. To address these problems, the aims of the eEarth and eWater projects were to provide cross-border multilingual access to spatial data on the lithological composition of subsurface (lithological description of borehole logs), quality, location and use of subsurface waters. As yet, this data was stored in national databases and was therefore easily accessible only to a user fluent in the local language. Both projects were supported and co-financed by the eContent programme.
The main objective of the two mentioned projects was to create an Internet system that would provide access to borehole and groundwater spatial data sets stored in the national databases of the participating countries. One of the important tasks was the development of the multilingual digital database and applications to provide translation services of the eEarth and eWater desktop and mobile applications. This aspect of the projects was coordinated by ÈGS-Geofond in the Czech Republic.
The most important job was to create a multi-lingual digital geological thesaurus. It has not been primarily designed as an explanatory dictionary, but rather as a database of terms organized into branches required by projects. The first task was the compilation and harmonization of data in the different languages from the separate national databases. In the second step, digital applications were designed to support automatic translation of the geological and technical terms used in the lithological description of borehole logs and in hydrogeological descriptions. Finally, web applications were created, permitting an access to the multilingual thesaurus by the public and supporting multilingual presentation of data from the national databases.
The thesaurus database contains lithological terms from the six national geological surveys involved in the eEarth project. Translations to eight languages are available: English, Polish, Czech, German, Dutch, Italian and Lithuanian, later also Hungarian was added. Hydrogeological terms from databases of the twelve national geological surveys involved in the eWater project are available in thirteen languages: English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish. In total, the thesaurus contains more than 56,000 terms in most European languages. An application giving public access to the Multilingual Digital Geological Thesaurus is available at http://mapmaker.geofond.cz/eearthmt/default.php. Although the targets set for both projects have been reached, the multilingual thesaurus has remained in an active mode, and is now maintained by ÈGS-Geofond. The service is still active, permitting the authorized users to make additions and amendments as necessary. New languages or new data can be added in the future.
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