Prototype Database of British Cave Survey Data.
Version : 2 01.05 2005
Owner : Harry Pearman
History :
• Version 1 12 Dec. 2004 Initial proposal
• Version 2 1 Jan. 2007 Various enhancements in response to consultation.
.
Contents
1. Scope
2. Entity
descriptions
3. Tables
4. Relationship
diagram.
5. Notation Types
6. Symbols and standard notation
1. Scope
This is a design of a prototype database for collecting cave survey data for caves. It is aimed primary at recording caves in the British Isles, but could also be adapted for foreign caves and for mines and other cavities.
By survey data is meant angles, bearings and distances and other relevant data for plotting surveys of caves.
By British Isles is meant England, Scotland, Wales and Northern and Southern Ireland.
A ball park figure for the number of caves in this area, both explored and unexplored is 10,000.
The underlying design principle is therefore to think and design for this totality, although initially a considerable shortfall is likely to exist.
2. Entity Descriptions
The attached data model diagram comprises Entities, shown as boxes and
Relationships shown as joining lines.
Entities are any grouping of data items with a unique identity or Key.
Relationships between two Entities are of the One-to-Many variety, the Many end being depicted on the diagram as an infinity sign.
The nature and internal structure of the database and many of its Keys will be transparent to individual end users.
The following Entities comprise the Model.
Cave
The Unique Cave Number will be allocated to caves sequentially and automatically as they are originated on the database and will thereafter act as the principal key for data entry.
Alternative Name
This will be used to records caves known by more than one name and also caves with several separately named exits.
Survey Station
A sequence of points forming the Centre Line of a cave survey. Each will have a user-defined number, unique for a given cave. Where a station provides a link with the surface, provision is made for a grid reference and height a.s.l. to be included. These fields are then propagated throughout the cave.
The distances at right angles from the Survey Station to the passage walls may also be entered optionally as Right and Left Offsets. The roof height and distance to floor may also be entered optionally.
Offsets facilitate the sketching in of walls and, together with the roof
height, enable cross-sections to be drawn as rectangles.
Survey Leg
Bearings and Distances record chains of Survey Stations to form a Centre Line, each chain link being termed a Survey Leg. This line is defined by the surveyor and may split and join to reflect the cave geometry. Thus one Survey Station may appear in more than one Survey Leg.
Metadata
Data will be entered in tranches or sessions and each will be accompanied by description together with a date and the contributor’s identity.
By this means the system will compile a history of data submission for each cave
MetadataLink
One Metadata entity may relate to more than one cave and this entity records the allocation.
Bibliography
Bibliographic references will be only for those publications with a factual content on identified caves. References to media other than books will be permitted. e.g. television programmes
Bibliolink
A Bibliographic reference may relate to more than one cave and this entity will provide the necessary cross references.
Notation
Text to appear with surveys can be of three types:-
1. Standard Labels (e.g. stalactites) which can be interpreted by some plotting programs as icons.
2. Named parts Identities of passages, chambers etc.
3. Notes Observations on parts or features of the cave on specified topics e.g. Geology. These can be of any length and are therefore more likely to be printed as accompanying notes rather than on plans.
A Class indicator distinguishes the three types.
Notation Link
Notations are located on a plotted survey by being cross referenced to specific Survey Stations.
Since the database is relational all Notations occur once but may be allocated to any cave. As an example the Notation “Entrance” will probably be allocated at least once to every cave.
Notation Type
Notations will be classified by Type. The base type is Topology, which will customarily attach icons and names to a plot. Other Types such as Recreational and Geology will facilitate the production of plots annotated to suit specific interest or fields of research.
Database
A single occurrence Entity which contains a password and summary information.
3. Tables
These tables should be read in conjunction with the relationship diagram.
N.B. M = Mandatory; O = Optional. Keys in Bold
Numeric fields:- Short = say 1 – 99.9; Medium = say 100 to 99999.99;
Long = greater than 100000.
Table 1 - Cave
Item
Name Range M/O Notes
UCN Medium M Unique cave
number
Cave
name Text M
Easting 0000000 M
Northing 0000000 M
Tolerance Small O
Height
a.s.l. 0000.00 M
Total
Stations Medium M Calculated
Total
Legs Medium M Calculated
Total
Distance Medium M Calculated
Last Stations Upload Date
0 Automatic.
Last Legs
Upload Date
0 Automatic
Last Notes
Upoad Date
0 Artomatic.
Last Update Date M Automatic
Data
Class Small M
Location Text O
Table 2 – Alternate name
Item
Name Range M/O Notes
Counter Short M Automatic
UCN Medium M
Name Text M
Table 3 – Survey Station
Item Name Range M/O Notes
Entry
Number Medium M Automatic
Station No. 1-
99999 M
UCN 1 - 99999 M
Right offset
(1) Short O Metres 2 decimal places
Left offset
(1) Short O Metres 2 decimal
places
Floor Short O Metres 2 decimal
places
Roof Short O Metres 2 decimal places
Height
a.s.l. Medium O Calculated
automatically
Easting 0000000 O Calculated
automatically
Northing 0000000 O Calculated automatically
(1) The assumed convention is that the offset bisects the angle between two
bearings.
Table 4 – Survey Leg
Item Name Range M/O Notes
Entry
Number Medium M Automatic
Leg
Number Medium M
From Station Medium M
To
Station Medium M
Distance 1 – 999.99 M Metres
2 decimal places
Bearing 000 - 360 M Deviation from Grid
N.
Vertical angle 0 – 90 +/- M
Table 5- Metadata
Item Name Range M/O Notes
Batch
number Short M Unique sequence number
Batch
date Date M
Owner Text. M
Narrative
Text O Description of batch contents.
Table 6 – MetadataLink
Item
Name Range M/O Notes
Counter Short M Unique
sequence number
UCN Medium M
Batch
Number Short M
Table 7 -Bibliography
Item Name Range M/O Notes
Serial
Number Medium M Automatic
Author Text O
Year Medium O 1000
to
9999
Title Text O
Publication Text O
Volume Short
(1) O
Number Short O
Publisher Text O
ISBN/ISSN Text O
Language Text O If
not English
(1) Users should convert Roman numerals to decimal.
Table 8 – BiblioLink
Item Name Range M/O Notes
Link
Number Medium M Automatic
Serial
Number Medium M
UCN Medium M
Pages Text O
Table 9 – Notation
Item Name Range M/O Notes
Notation
Number Long M Automatic
Notation
Type Short M
Notation Text M
Notation
Class Short M 1, 2 or 3
Table 10 – Notation Link
Item Name Range M/O Notes
Unique
Number Long M Automatic
Notation
Number Long M
Entry Number Long M
Table 11 – Notation Type
Item Name Range M/O Notes
Notation
Type Short M
Description Text M
Table 12 – Database
Item Name Range M/O Notes
Password Text M 10
ch entered at System Generation
Total
Caves Medium O Automatic
Total
Stations Medium O Automatic
Total
Legs Medium O Automatic
Total
Distance Medium O Automatic
Database
Name Text O Entered at System
generation
Custodian Text O Entered at System
generation
Next available UCN Small O Automatic
Last
Housekeeping Date O Automatic
5. Notation Types
Notation is classified by Types to facilitate the plotting of specialist surveys. Several Types can be combined ino a single plot.
Type Topic Note
1 Topology Basic centre line plot to
form the basis of other plots
2 Recreation To produce a caver’s
plot showing hazards and equipment
requirements
3 Morphology Indicators of cave
formation
4 Geology Banding, layering,
minerals
5 Sedimentology Layered
deposits
6 Meteorology Air measurement and
movement
7 Hydrology Water movement
8 Vertebrates Fish
and bat observations
9 Invertebrates All other creepy
crawlies
10 Biology Fungi, Bacteria, flora ,
ecology
11 Palaeontology Deposits, relics
12 Archeology/
History Evidence of man
13 Conservation Including
taping
14 Commercial Access, health and safety,
installations
15 Mining Mine features
15 Survey
Notes Station locations, closure notes
7. Symbols and standard notation
The proposed database is relational, which means that items of data are created only once. This concept therefore applies to Notation. For example the word ‘Entrance’ is held once and can be applied to any cave.
It is therefore worth considering the creation of a standard set of notation, which can be initiated whenever the system is generated, and which thereafter can be attached to any survey station.
A logical extension of this idea is that intermediate survey stations can be created along a bearing solely for the purposes of inserting notation, or in the case of a large, irregular chamber spurs can be taken off of the centre line in order to insert notation.
Standardisation of notation is not a new idea. There is an agreed international list of survey symbols and it can be found in Speleologia no.41 1999.
This suggests that you can append to a Survey Station a series of numeric codes indexed to a list of symbols. The plotting system which comes to plot the data then holds a library of symbols and when it comes across a symbol code in the data looks it up and inserts the symbol in the plot.
Inspection of the international list shows however that many of the standards are instructions to the draughtsman on how to draw features, rather than to produce symbols.
For the purposes of this prototype the list has been edited and symbol-like
entries have been designated with Notation Class 1, while others of the
instruction type have been designated Notation Class 2.
The proposed standard notation is as follows:-
Class 1 = Symbols
Notation Type
Water enters Hydrology
Running
water Hydrology
Water exits Hydrology
Dye
connection Hydrology
Sump Hydrology
Scallop
markings Morphology
End of wire traverse Recreation
Running
water
(arrow) Hydrology
Syphon Hydrology
Waterfall Hydrology
Sound
of water Hydrology
Scallop marks Morphology
Solution
pockets Morphology
Corrosion marks Morphology
Bone
deposit Paleontology
Start of wire traverse Recreation
Too
tight Recreation
Bivouac Recreation
Possible extension/
dig Recreation
Loose rocks Recreation
Boulder
choke Topology
High level bypass Recreation
Impenetrable
Passage Recreational
Unexplored Recreational
Loose
rocks Recreation
Stalagmite(s) Sedimentology
Stalactite(s) Sedimentology
Curtain(s) Sedimentology
Column(s) Sedimentology
Helictite(s) Sedimentology
Other
formations Sedimentology
Small gour(s) Sedimentology
Large
gour(s) Sedimentology
Cave Pearls Sedimentology
Impenetrable
Passage Topology
Infill Topology
Small
boulders Topology
Large boulders Topology
Step
Down Topology
Entrance Topology
Guano
deposit Vertebrates
Class 2 = Standard text notation
Interesting mineral deposit Geology
Start of lake
(Depth) Hydrology
End of lake Hydrology
Dye
connection Hydrology
Faint air movement Meteorology
Strong air
movement Meteorology
Ice, snow, neve Meteorology
Open
joint(s) Morphology
Interesting fossil
deposit Paleontology
Locked gate Recreational
Fixed belay
point Recreational
Fixed
ladder Recreational
Graffiti/vandalism Recreational
Emergency
dump Recreational
Audible connection Recreational
Telephone
point Recreational
Squeeze Recreational
Start of tight
crawl Recreational
End of tight
crawl Recreational
Accident black
spot/hazard Recreational
Galleries overlap with no
connection Surveyor
Estimate of wall position Surveyor
Fixed
Survey Station Surveyor
Height asl (Height) Surveyor
Overhang at
entrance Topology
Step down in floor
(Distance) Topology
Series of Steps in Floor (drop in height)
Topology
Opening to surface in roof
(distance) Topology
Aven (height) Topology
Pit in floor
(Distance) Topology
Slope – arrow points down Topology
Large
boulder(s) Topology
Start of rocks and gravel Topology
End of
rocks and gravel Topology
Start of mud,silt floor Topology
End
of mud, silt floor Topology
Mud banks at sides Topology
Daylight
penetration Topology