Monday, February 4, 2002		Article

Combining IT with geology
Sumesh Raizada

INFORMATION Technology (IT) has encompassed several conventional trades into its fold apart from application in engineering design, accounting or commerce. Almost every area of work nowadays involves the use of specialised software, hardware or communication devices. Geosciences is such an important field, which utilises IT tools for various research and exploration activities. As a result there are fine career prospect for IT proficient geosciences professionals in India as well as abroad.

Geosciences is the study of earth and natural resources like water, minerals, soil, etc. It has major application in exploration and development of oil, coal or gas, preservation of natural environment from ecological hazards, analysis of earthquakes, landslides, avalanche, etc. and in space mission.

Geoscientists are those who study the composition, structure and the natural processes involving earth. They are involved in activities related to mining of minerals, exploration of oil and sub-surface water. They develop and implement processes for ensuring quality checks for various naturally occurring materials. They study volcano, earthquakes, floods, and explore resources in the ocean as well as in the earth core. Most of the geoscientists are involved in research activities and either work in laboratories or on site for gathering and exploring new facts about earth.

Computers and related tools play a major role in the gathering and interpretation of data in all areas of geosciences. Geoscientists work in close coordination with other scientists and professionals for resolving their problems. With the Internet and other computer-aided application, availability of data, the speed of communication has increased considerably. This has further widened the scope of geosciences.

Major disciplines of geosciences are geology, oceanography and space research. These are further categorised according to the occupations such as environmental geologist, geochemist, geomorphologists, glaciologist, hydrologists, mineralogists, seismologists, meteorologists and astronomers.

Geosciences professionals needs to have a background in science especially geology, physics, biology or chemistry with added proficiency in related software or hardware. Civil engineering graduates with sufficient training on computers also have job opportunities in this field. With the increasing use of IT tools and techniques in geosciences, these professionals have to be qualified in advanced or specialised application-based software. However, trained software and hardware professionals are employed separately in most organisations to provide vital support to geoscientists.

For example in case of geographic mapping for exploration and research activities, geographic information system (GIS) support is provided by the professionals.

Geosciences professionals should also have aptitude for research and exploration activities. As job involves working in a team, a person needs to have excellent communication skills also. Geoscientists work independently as consultants especially in the field of oil exploration or structural engineering. Others are employed in petroleum or natural gas industry for exploration of oil reserves, mining industry, in weather predications, space research, water management, in construction of dams and bridges. Firms like ONGC, GAIL, ISRO, construction firms, gem and diamond industry and consulting firms provide employment to geoscientists. The professionals are also employed in research laboratories for advanced research or in educational institutions.

Computer professionals work in close coordination with geoscientists in various research and related activities. They are associated in the management, analysis, processing and display of data, statistical analysis, remote sensing techniques, digital simulation, automatic cartography and soil data interpretation. Some commonly used Petroleum software are Bubbles, CrossLog, Digimatic, LogPlot2000, MaxiPit, Orefinder, Polymap, Viewpoint, VROOM, etc. Some of the environmental software used by professionals are AquaChem, Aquifer Win32, ChemStat, etc.

IT professionals also work as database programmer, system administrator and software developer. The activities include managing various Web-based operations, data collection and analysis of geosciences information, developing and managing specialised software for specific applications. They need to have strong working knowledge of Windows or Linux platforms, SQL C, Pearl, etc. Many geosciences companies employ Web designers for developing Websites of the firm for research and providing online education. A person must have good knowledge of HTML, Dreamwaver, etc. Professionals working in hydrogeology or GIS must be trained in Arc/Info, ERMapper, Oracle, SOLMINQ88 or SUPCRT92.

Professionals are also employed by consulting companies that have projects related to site investigations for oil refineries and coastal projects. The site professionals work in marine geotechnics, GIS, etc. and are responsible for preparation and completion of structural engineering design, plans and construction activities. Those working as acoustic analyst must be qualified in computer sciences or engineering. They are required to apply analytical and numerical methods in resolving problems related to ocean acoustics and signal processing. They must be capable of designing, data processing and interpretation. These professionals should be familiar with standard software for signal processing, graphical displays, computational acoustics, etc. and must have good communication skills

Geosciences professional, according to application, must be aware of array processing techniques, communication systems theory, coherent and non-coherent modulation, or demodulation, MATLAB, Web software like Java, CGI and software for distributed processing like PVM or MPI. Those working, as structural professionals, are responsible for preparation and completion of concrete or steel structures in applications say dams, bridges, high-rise buildings, etc. They do complete simulation of a structure with the help of computer software and are thus able to work out the complete details before actual construction begins. These professionals also work on projects involving design and construction of hydraulic structures, water supply, sewerage, irrigation projects, roads, residential or commercial complexes, etc.

Besides working in geoscience companies or related organisations, professionals have tremendous scope in IT industry itself. They work for the design and development of application software as well as hardware products. RockWare Inc. is one such company, which is mainly engaged in development of earth science software. Their products include environmental, GIS, mining and petroleum software. Field data recorder is meant for collecting soil, water or rock samples with the help of a pocket PC, MapCalc is for analysis and display of spatial data, RockWorks for point maps, contours, grid maps and solid maps, etc. Some other software products with which a geoscientist needs to be aware includes Geochemist Workbench for tracing reaction processes, calculating equilibrium speciation for water analysis, creating stability diagrams and manipulating chemical reactions with the help of graphical display. MaPublisher is software to export GIS maps to Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia while Surfer is a contouring, griding and surface mapping package for professionals.

Mostly geosciences jobs includes field work and the professionals have tremendous opportunity of adventure, learning and exploring new and unknown facts about our planet earth. As a result many of them also work as freelancers with media companies like National Geographic or Discovery in their funded projects.