A New Era! – Collaborative Geological and Geophysical Mapping

A core function of the New South Wales Department of Mineral Resources is the ongoing geological mapping of the State of New South Wales. Until recently, airborne geophysical data were not used in field mapping. Now that Second Edition geological mapping has begun, and with assistance from the National Geoscience Mapping Accord, large areas of the State have been flown with high resolution airborne geophysical surveys. With the State Government now requiring more to be done with less, the integration of these airborne datasets with geology in a collaborative process is necessary to maximise efficiency of geological mapping. Integration is achieved by initially using standard data presentations in a pre-mapping interpretation, followed by a suite of data enhancements during the field mapping phase. On-going interpretation is further refined by the use of ground geophysics and potential field modelling to resolve specific problems. Post-mapping synthesis of the data in a GIS environment enables mismatch between datasets to be highlighted. The end result is more professionally produced, high quality geological maps.