The importance of sharing GeoNet data
GeoNet is a web of science, technology and people that collects many of Aotearoa New Zealand’s land and geohazard datasets which contribute to how we understand our land. A key part of this sees the GeoNet programme collect comprehensive data while monitoring the geological hazards our country faces including earthquakes, volcanoes, large landslides, and tsunami.
Making this data freely available is an underpinning philosophy of GeoNet since it began. To highlight both critical and interesting aspects of this data and how it can be used, we began publishing Data Blogs in 2022.
Data Blogs cover a wide range of the data GeoNet collects, sometimes focusing on specific datasets, like our Volcanic Alert Level dataset. Other times we broaden the focus and discuss more general data-related information, such as how often we collect data and why this might vary for different data types.
Our goal is for the Blogs to take no more than ten minutes to read, and while some of the material might be technical, we plan to explain things in a way that most readers can understand and appreciate.
We have written 27 blogs since 2022, you can access all of them via our News page on the website, and app. Here are some of our favourites:
- The sound of seismic waves(external link)
- Describing the depth of earthquakes beneath Lake Taupō(external link)
- Another look at our webcam images, focusing on Whakaari/White Island(external link)
- The Built-environment Instrumentation Programme(external link)
- Your GeoNet Data JourneyUsing GeoNet’s AWS Open Data(external link)
Data, and lots of it
Since its inception, GeoNet has accumulated over 150TB of data collected by its seismic sensors, coastal sea level gauges, geodetic instruments, acoustic sensors, tsunami sensors, cameras, and environmental sensors to help us understand our planet. This is the equivalent to 4.5 years of HD video, and the data is growing by 13TB, or as much as 6,500 hours of HD video, annually. All this data is available on the various data delivery applications we provide and can be accessed via the GeoNet website.
The importance of data
GeoNet integrates into New Zealand’s scientific, resilience, and emergency management systems as a cornerstone for developing a strong understanding of our geohazards. The data is used by scientists and decision makers providing them invaluable insights.
An example of the data in use is in hazard models that inform New Zealand engineering guidance. It can give structural engineers advice on where to place critical infrastructure, like power plants, based on the probability of an earthquake, landslide, or tsunami in that area.
The insurance industry also use hazard and risk models, with input from GeoNet data, to better calculate at risk areas so risk managers can better estimate the financial impact of uncertainty for insurance policies and help their clients minimise risk.
Our data team welcomes your feedback on our data blogs. And if there are any GeoNet data topics you would like to read about, please let the team know. And feel free to let us know if and how, you use our open data – just email info@geonet.org.nz