Author’s personal copy Rend. Online Soc. Geol. It., Vol. 46 (2018), pp. 88-93, 4 figs. (https://doi.org/10.3301/ROL.2018.57) © Società Geologica Italiana, Roma 2018 A seamless database for a digital geological map of central Italy: the case of Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Tuscany and Umbria regions Altair Pirro (a), Paolo Conti (b,c), Gianluca Cornamusini (b, c), Luigi Carmignani (b, c), Giulia Verdiani (b), Bernadette Meola (b), Guido Lavorini (d), Andrea Motti (e), Marco Pizziolo (f), Claudia Bettucci (g), Giovanna Daniele (f) & Norman Natali (e) (a) GeoExplorer Impresa Sociale s.r.l., Via Vetri Vecchi, 34, 52027 San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy. Tel: +39 055-9119428 - Fax: +39 055-9119439. (b) Centro di Geotecnologie dell’Università di Siena, Via Vetri Vecchi, 34, 56027 San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy. Tel: +39 055-9119430 - Fax: +39 055-9119439. (c) Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, della Terra e dell’Ambiente, Università degli Studi di Siena. (d) Regione Toscana, Responsabile P. O. Geologia, Sistema Informativo Territoriale e Ambientale, Direzione Urbanistica e Politiche Abitative, Firenze. (e) Regione Umbria, Servizio Geologico e Sismico, Perugia. (f) Regione Emilia-Romagna, Servizio Geologico, Sismico e dei Suoli, Bologna. (g) Regione Marche, Servizio Infrastrutture Trasporti ed Energia, P.F. Urbanistica, Paesaggio e Informazioni Territoriali, Ancona. Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected]. Document type: Short note. Manuscript submitted 16 October 2017; accepted 31 January 2018; editorial responsibility and handling by G. De Filippis. ABSTRACT The cartography produced, while covering the area of the In 2012, the Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Tuscany and Umbria four regions, shows various inconsistencies, and above all: regions signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development a) different names of geological formations are often of a geological map of their territories. Based on previous results, a used to indicate the usual lithostratigraphic unit; unique geological database has been produced with a geographic b) different rocks are sometimes identified with the mapping in GIS vector format at a scale of 1:10,000. The emergence of inconsistencies in initial cartography made necessary the revision of four same name (as a result of different interpretations of pilot areas: “Conca-Marecchia”, “Tuscany-Umbria”, “Pistoia-Modena” geologic successions and tectonic arrangement of an area); and “Massa Carrara-Parma”. With regards to the latter, the problems to c) some areas have legends for quaternary units based be solved were: a) the position and correlation between tertiary turbid on different stratigraphic principles (e.g., legends based arenaic formations; b) interpretation of the position of marvelous sequences; c) interpretation of the tectonic structures of the Passo del on Unconformity Bounded Stratigraphic Units – UBSU, Cerreto- F.Secchia, with outgrowth of medium-grade metamorphic (Chang, 1975) and legends based on classic ubiquitous rocks tectonically juxtaposed to evaporitic triassic formations; d) the stratigraphic units, such as floods, slopes (Bonciani et al., nature and age of the tectonic contacts at the roof of the succession 2012) etc. of the Passo del Cerreto-F.Secchia and of the area of the​​ M.Ventasso. To solve some critical issues, field data have been integrated with In order to achieve a common map of the four regions, information about the age of the stratigraphic successions mentioned the following problems also have to be solved: above, through biostratigraphic and petrographic studies. The final product consisted in a new database useful to test the geological data concerning some critical revision areas. – lack of a homogeneous geological legend for the four regions, structured in paleogeographical domains, KEY WORDS: geodatabase, GIS, seamless dataset, largescale tectonic units, etc (Bigi et al., 1990); geological map. – lack of a geological database structure valid for all regions, so that all geological information can be processed in a GIS environment and disseminated INTRODUCTION with a shared data structure; – “junction” problems at the administrative boundaries, In recent years, the Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Tuscany i.e., the common boundaries to the single geological and Umbria regions have independently completed cartographies; geological mapping at a scale of 1:10,000 within their – homogenization of the types of tectonic contacts respective administrative territories and have made it occurring. freely available through their geological service websites. Geological maps are the result of surveys performed by universities, institutes of the National Research Council, MATERIALS AND METHODS public and private entities, freelance geologists. In some cases, the geological surveys were part of the CARG Following the definition of the Preliminary Geological (Geological CARtography) Project, which aimed at creating Legend (Verdiani et al., 2014) applicable to the interregional geological and geothematic sheets on a scale of 1:50,000 territory, a database was designed (Fig. 1) with the aim of over the entire national area. The CARG project was carried storing all the existing geological data for the four regions. out by the Italian Geological Survey of Italy-ISPRA. In order to integrate all the available data, it was decided A SEAMLESS database FOR A digital GEOLOGICAL MAP OF CENTRAL Italy 89 Fig. 1 - New Geological Interregional Database scheme not yet adherent to the GeoSciML model, undergoing experimentation. to develop a database that would reflect as much as GIS vector format, the four regions have decided to solve possible the data structure of the database of the Seamless the boundaries problems by instructing the Center for Geological Database of the Tuscany Region (BDG-RT) GeoTechnologies of the University of Siena to consider (Pirro et al., 2012) at 1:10,000 scale. four critical pilot areas which are representative of the This database, developed by the Centre for issues to be faced: Geotechnologies of the University of Siena, presents an object-oriented relational structure aimed at managing a) the basin of the Conca-Marecchia rivers (“Marecchia” and storing large amounts of geological and geothematic information. Processing of existing data for data entry and area in Fig. 2, Emilia-Romagna, Marche, and Tuscany thematic homogenization was fundamental in the design regions); and implementation of the database. The most of geospatial b) the area located at the administrative boundary elaborations were performed in ESRI ™ ArcGIS® Desktop between the Tuscany Region and the Umbria Region 10.5 (ESRI, 2015) environment, often by manual editing. (“Toscana-Umbria” area in Fig. 2); In this new structure we took into account the new types of c) the area of ​​the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines across the data (e.g., new types of geological limits, etc.) to be stored provinces of Pistoia and Modena (“Pistoia-Modena” in the database, considering also the relationships between area in Fig. 2); the geological formations at the 1:100,000 scale and those d) the area of ​​the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines at the border at the 1:250,000 scale. between the provinces of Massa-Carrara, Lucca, Parma On the other hand, updating of data structure to the and Modena (“Massa Carrara-Parma” area in Fig. 2). GeoSciML model (IUGS CGI, 2008) is in progress in order to comply with the INSPIRE directive (European Commission, 2007). In addition, a unique geological map at a scale of Each of these areas exhibits geological peculiarities 1:250,000, similar to Geological Map of Tuscany (Carmignani that require analysis and aggregation of different et al., 2012; 2013), is currently under construction. litostratigraphic units (quaternary formations and deposits). The work done for each area is described below. It is important to remember that no field observations or REVISION AREAS new stratigraphic data have been collected, and this work of data homogenization has been carried out on the basis To overcome the issues mentioned in the Introduction of accurate analysis of the existing geological cartography and to produce a “continuous” geological mapping in and literature. 90 A. PIRRO ET AL. Fig. 2 - Location of the four study areas, blue lines indicate the regional boundaries. Continuum Central Italy geological base map at a scale of 1:250.00 under completion and publication. CONCA-MARECCHIA AREA different entities and at different times (Fig. 3), necessarily involved problems of “attaching” among them. Where The Basin of the Conca and Marecchia rivers includes the geological coverage of the five databases comes into administrative territories in the regions of Emilia- contact, various types of inconsistencies have been found. Romagna, Marche, Tuscany, including the Republic of More in detail, in the five databases: a) polygons that San Marino. The use of different databases, carried out by come into contact sometimes have different informative Fig. 3 - Geological databases available and used for the geological map of the Conca- Marecchia basin area. The boundary of the basin area is indicated in blue, the regional boundaries are indicated in red. A SEAMLESS database FOR A digital GEOLOGICAL MAP OF CENTRAL Italy 91 attributes; b) limits with different attributes of contacts Sintema of Fighille, Sintema of Monterchi, Tiberinus occur (e.g., direct faults that continue as overcrowding Supersynthesis, etc.). To allow correlation of these in the adjacent database); c) different names are used to deposits with similar successions emerging