Data Interchange for Geotechnical and GeoEnvironmental Specialists (DIGGS)

DIGGS is a coalition of government agencies, universities and industry partners whose focus is on the creation and maintenance of an international data transfer standard for transportation related data. The coalition came into existence through coordination from the US Federal Highway Administration sponsoring meetings and eventually forming the pooled fund study project. The initial base schema consists of geotechnical data including Borehole, soil testing, site information and more. The first SIG is extending the schema to include Geo-Environmental testing. More SIGs and expanded membership are in the works.

The draft DIGGS standard is available for review and comment. In order to act as a reviewer, you must create an account. You will then have access to download the schema and documentation as well as participate in the online discussion forum. The forums will be monitored and the DIGGS team will answer questions to help in the understanding and implementation of the schema and will be the main point of contact for review comments. The schema will be updated monthly with corrections and additions during the review. Review Forum >

Recent Blog Entries (Full Blog Listing)


Project Plan for the Development of DIGGS

Wed, 02/12/2009 - 20:42 — LTurner

The “Project Plan” (also referred to as the “Project Roadmap”) is presented in this document with details, tasks, and activities to be carried out for the remainder of the Transportation Pooled Fund Project TPF-5(111), “Development of Standards for Geotechnical Management Systems.” A draft version of this project plan was presented at a DIGGS team meeting in Orlando, Florida in late March 2009 (http://www.diggsml.com/march-2009-diggs-meeting-report-project-status-and-development-new-roadmap). Discussions and recommendations stemming from that meeting were used to revise the draft plan. Additionally, in the Summer of 2009, the DIGGS Project Team contracted with Galdos Systems and Compusult Ltd. to carry out independent reviews of DIGGS version 1.0a schemas (http://www.diggsml.com/diggs-project-team-contracts-galdos-systems-and-compusult-ltd-carry-out-review-diggs-version-1-0a). The recommendations stemming from this review were also used to identify tasks.

Report from the DIGGS Governance Task Force

Sat, 31/10/2009 - 01:20 — LTurner

DIGGS needs to develop a sustainable governance structure that can be responsible for the standard, manage maintenance and support, provide a structure for input and new releases and provide a mechanism for keeping the standard international and collaborative. Resulting from the GMS meeting in Orlando, March 25 & 26, 2009, a task committee was assigned to develop and present options for a governance model. The models need to allow for a smooth transition from the current pooled fund (TPF) organization to one that provides long term stability.

Pooled Fund Project TPF 5(111)

The Pooled Fund Project is a US Federal Highways Administration project administered by the state of Ohio. Multiple states commit funds to create a larger project under which all organizations receive the benefit from the project. The DIGGS project was created to develop an international standard interchange format for geotechnical data. The project brought together the existing formats created by Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists in the United Kingdom (AGS), Consortium of Organizations for Strong-Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS) and Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) created by the University of Florida (UF). The project has a governance structure for developing the base schema as well as Special Interest Groups (SIG) to create extensions. The result of the project is the DIGGS schema. Pooled Fund Project >