Geological Map Polygon Checker for Depositional Environments
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing geological mapping technologies often incorrectly assign depositional environments to adjacent polygons, leading to invalid representations of geological formations, which can result in inaccurate identification of hydrocarbon and other natural resource locations.
Innovation Solution
A software application that uses a rule-based system, such as Walther's Law, to check the validity of depositional environment assignments between adjacent polygons, identifying conflicts and allowing for corrective actions to ensure accurate placement based on geographical coordinates and compatible depositional environment characteristics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If geological mapping technologies assign depositional environments to polygons automatically, then the productivity of geological analysis is improved, but the reliability of polygon arrangement becomes poor due to incorrect assignments
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a validation mechanism that checks polygon arrangements against Walther's Law rules. When conflicts are detected (e.g., incompatible depositional environments adjacent to each other), the system provides feedback by identifying the conflicting polygons and offering corrective actions, allowing users to review and adjust assignments while maintaining automated processing efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary validation checks on polygon arrangements before finalizing the geological map. By checking compatibility of adjacent polygons against established rules in advance, the system prevents incorrect assignments from propagating through the analysis, ensuring reliability before productivity is fully realized
2Reliability
If manual verification of polygon depositional environments is performed, then the reliability of arrangement is improved, but the productivity of geological mapping deteriorates due to increased time consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-validation by automatically checking polygon arrangements against Walther's Law rules without requiring manual intervention for every check. The automated conflict detection and corrective action suggestions enable the system to verify its own outputs, maintaining high reliability while preserving productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an automated rule-based validation layer as an intermediary between polygon creation and final map production. This intermediary performs rapid consistency checks using predefined geological rules, providing near-manual verification quality at automated processing speeds
Data Source
AI summary
A method for determining validity of an arrangement of a plurality of contiguous depositional environment polygons that depict a geological region includes obtaining a plurality of polygons stored in a dataset of polygons, each polygon of the plurality of polygons assigned a different depositional environment characteristic, and the plurality of polygons representing the geological region, arranging the plurality of polygons adjacent each other using geographical coordinates of the polygons, and thereby obtain an arrangement of the plurality of polygons, determining whether the arrangement of the plurality of polygons is valid using a rule-base that includes pairs of compatible depositional environment characteristics arranged adjacent each other, and generating a map of geological polygons for a region that facilitates exploration of a natural resource