Iceland Continental Shelf Portal (older version)
(Closed November 2019)
The Iceland Continental Shelf Portal (ICSP) provided access to information about data pertaining to the Icelandic Continental Shelf, in particular, initially, to the northern Dreki Area. All data was presented online in an accessible format, and included a block system for the licensing area, an overview of geophysical data, and metadata on surveys of the Dreki Area. One of the objectives of the Portal was to assist those seeking information on the licensing area. For example, it depicted blocks that were available in licensing rounds and the location of already licenced blocks and provided an overview of the available data: who collected it and when, where the data was stored and how it could be accessed. The ICSP was launched online in early 2009 and was available in Icelandic and English.
Software
The ICSP used a software solution (Flashmap) originally developed by the digital design company Gagarín for the Icelandic Nature Portal (INP). The project was initially funded by Rannís, the Icelandic Centre for Research, and then by the Icelandic Project on the Information Society and Orkustofnun. The software solution was cooperatively developed by companies and institutions over a period of several years. Design focused on creating a user-friendly environment that simplified both entering and sharing standardised information about data from diverse sources. The portal incorporated several tools, e.g. zoom, repositioning windows, print, scale bar, and latitude/longitude values of the pointer. It was also possible to reposition data layers on the list of Active Layers in order to focus on different features of interest. The portal made it possible to share various types of information on the datasets, such as metadata, general and detailed information, in which links could be provided to data tables and other materials on Orkustofnun's website, as well as links to other websites. The ICSP used a different coordinate system from that used by the INP and the IEP. It was based on UTM Zone 29 and WGS-84.
Data
The ICSP was based chiefly on vector datasets that were generated for the project through the cooperative efforts of Orkustofnun and Iceland GeoSurvey (ÍSOR), in addition to raster graphics available through web services. The datasets involved layers with quadrants for the northeastern Icelandic Continental Shelf, the shape of the northern Dreki Area and its block system and several layers that provided an overview of data from surveys in the northern Dreki Area, such as seismic reflection measurements and multibeam bathymetry. The raster web services provided access to shaded-relief colour images from grids of, e.g., bathymetric data.
Screenshots of ICSP (older version)