Exploratory Locations

Introduction to Exploratory Locations and Data Structure

Some activities within Exploratory Locations require Editor or Manager permissions, see here for a full summary.

The Exploratory Locations Module of GDMS is a repository for ground investigation information owned by National Highways. It covers all types of investigation (e.g. borehole, trial pits, window samples) and records basic information about each investigation point (location, dates, reference number, project/scheme etc.). Basic investigation information is recorded on the system as an Exploratory Location.

Detailed ground investigation results (e.g. observed geology, testing results) are added to the system by uploading a Geodata File, one of a series of standardised file formats for the transfer of geology data (most commonly an AGS file). This file can be downloaded by other users to access the results for their purposes.

This approach ensures the information on the system meets a minimum quality standard and is in a standard format which can easily integrate with other packages. For the same reasons manual creation and editing of some data is not supported.

Geodatasets and Exploratory Locations can optionally be linked to a GDMS Report. This could include for example a ground investigation report which presents interpretation of the results.

The Exploratory Locations Menu is accessed by clicking Users within the Main Menu and is shown in the image below:

Within the Exploratory Locations module you can:

Search and view Exploratory Locations and Geodatasets.
Download Geodata Files containing the ground investigation results.
Create new Geodatasets and thereby Exploratory Locations
Link Geodatasets and Exploratory Locations to Reports and Roads
Edit Geodatasets, although not Exploratory Locations
Remove Geodatasets and Exploratory Locations

Information about boreholes held by the British Geological Society (BGS) can also be accessed from the Map.
Links are provided to the BGS website for the scanned borehole logs.

Data Structure

The diagram below summarises the data structure for the Exploratory Locations module:

The term “Exploratory Location” is generally synonymous to “Borehole” on the legacy system, but reflects that these are often one of the broader range of ground investigation techniques supported by the AGS format; e.g. trial pits,
window sampler locations, etc.