The Iceland Continental Shelf Portal has been launched
The Portal can be accessed at the web-adress http://www.landgrunnsvefsja.is/vefsja/icsp.html. At first, the ICSP will give an overview of data for the Dreki Area, and make that available on the internet. The opening of the ICSP is related to the first licensing round for exclusive licenses for exploration and production of hydrocarbons in the northern Dreki Area.
In the ICSP information can be found on the seafloor of the Icelandic Continental Shelf, on geophysical surveys that have been conducted in the area, e.g. seismic and multibeam surveys, and information on the blocks that are on offer during the licensing round. The goal of the ICSP is not to show the original data, but to give an overview of the available data;
who collected it and when, where the data is stored and how it can be accessed. Short texts provide further information about the area and the data collected to date. The ICSP will be updated with new data layers once they become available, such as information on any exclusive licenses for exploration and production of hydrocarbons that will be issued in the northern Dreki Area, as well as ongoing exploration research, e.g. drilling.
The ICSP uses software solutions originally developed by the digital design company Gagarín for the Icelandic Nature Portal (Náttúruvefsjá), with some added features specially designed for the ICSP. One of the main additions was the possibility to show information in two languages, and now the entire text is in both Icelandic and English. The design of the ICSP allows sharing of many different types of information, including links to further information that can be accessed on the National Energy Authority's website, as well as other websites. The ICSP is chiefly based on vector datasets that have been generated for the project through the cooperative efforts of the National Energy Authority and Iceland GeoSurvey (ÍSOR), in addition to some raster graphics.