The Digital Mapping Techniques workshop series (“DMT”) brings together scientists, cartographers, and GIS specialists, from State and Federal agencies, as well as Universities, the private sector, and international colleagues. This annual series of workshops began in 1997. It is a highly regarded venue that has contributed to the development and evolution of digital mapping techniques, standards, and guidelines both in the United States and internationally.

The workshop’s objective is to foster informal discussion and exchange of technical information and expertise, and to develop more efficient methods for the many aspects of creating, managing, and serving digital geoscience map information. There is not, of course, a single “solution” or approach to digital mapping that will work for each agency or for each program or group within an agency. Instead, each agency must plot its own course, based on personnel, funding, and many other constraints. The value of the DMT workshops and similar forums is their role in helping to design or refine these agency-specific approaches to digital mapping, and especially to find applicable approaches used by other agencies.

For information regarding the DMT workshops, or if you wish to attend our next meeting, please contact Dave Soller (drsoller@usgs.gov).

DMT ’24

The DMT’24 workshop will be held May 13 – 16, 2024 in Normal, Illinois on the campus of Illinois State University. DMT’24 is an in-person event, organized by staff of the Illinois State Geological Survey, the Illinois State University Department of Geography/Geology and the National Geologic Map Database.

Since the DMT’s inception in 1997, the meeting focus has remained consistent, including but not limited to the following topics. Even if you can’t attend these meetings, we encourage you to send us ideas and guidance for topics, and we’ll try to work them into next year’s agenda. Many of the presentations given on these topics become available soon after the workshop.

Cartographic techniques for creating paper and digital-format geologic maps from field notes, manuscript maps, and map databases
Information management and delivery (e.g. Web-accessible databases, Web Services)
Design and implementation of individual and corporate geologic map databases; in particular, continued development of the National Geologic Map Database
Migration of map data to new formats (for example, from Arc coverages or shapefiles to ArcGIS Geodatabases)
Preservation of unpublished earth science information
The use of LIDAR or other advanced terrain models for field work and map/database preparation
3-D databases and/or visualization techniques