Design and implementation of Southern Africa Geoscience Information Service Network

Under the background of economic globalization, carrying out the exploitation and utilization of overseas mineral resources is a significant measure to participate in the global resource allocation. Southern Africa, rich in mineral resources, is an important node along the Belt and Road. In order to provide accurate services related to the exploitation and utilization of mineral resources in Southern Africa for Chinese enterprises and institutions, the Southern Africa Geoscience Information Service Network, which achieved the integration and sharing of the Southern African mining investment environment and basic geoscience data, is developed and launched. The service network takes into account the practicality and scalability, develops from the perspective of functional realization, adopts SOA service-oriented architecture, builds a distributed geographic information sharing and application development environment based on WebService technology, uses python information automatic crawler technology and multi-source heterogeneous data integration technology, develops five modules, including browsing and query, investment environment map, investment environment assessment, lending service and operation management. It integrates information on physical geography, infrastructure construction, social culture and education, political environment and security, mining industry economics and mineral resources potential in Southern Africa, and implements sharing, publishing and browsing of spatial data and unstructured data. It can provide one-stop information services for mining investment of 25 countries in Southern Africa, and thereby accurately support “Going-Out” for Chinese mining companies and investment cooperation.