The Glossary 3.0 of the CARG Project: An updated web-based controlled vocabulary of terms related to geological maps

The wide experience gained during the first phase of the CARG Project (realization of the 1: 50,000 scale Geological Map of Italy), along with its new funding in 2019, has evidenced the need for a new expanded Glossary. Despite it is not so exhaustive to cover all fields of Geology, it aims to provide a shared and univocal semantics for the CARG Project products (Geological Sheet, Explanatory Notes, Database). The Glossary 3.0 is intimately related with the Geological Database of the CARG Project (GDB), which is in turn based on the terms used for geological mapping. It implements and updates previous versions included in the guidelines of the CARG Project (Servizio Geologico Nazionale, 1992, 2009a,b). The revision of the inherited terms was performed by referring to the most recent and accredited bibliography (note the bibliographic references in the descriptions). The Glossary contains terms occurring in the GDB as well as other terms useful to describe more specific items. Related concepts and synonyms are mutually connected through hyperlinks, creating a semantically harmonized and technically interoperable geo-dataset. The terms contain the broadest description possible, including different meanings adopted in the multidisciplinary fields of Geosciences, when necessary. In some cases, the general description of terms is complemented by their specific meanings in the GDB. For each GDB occurrence, the names and domain codes of the fields and tables of the GDB are also provided. Several terms are linked to the INSPIRE terminology, according to the EU directive requirements (INSPIRE), or to the semantically-controlled vocabulary of IUGS (i.e., GeoSciML) if they are not listed in INSPIRE. This choice has had the purpose to: i) refer to the European vocabulary, ii) compare the latter with the CARG terminology, which is often different, and iii) remark that the complexity of the Italian geological context requires a plethora of specific terms adopted in this Glossary. The Glossary 3.0 is available online and periodically updated. It is designed as a useful and flexible tool for a wider audience (i.e., geoscientists, students, teachers, etc.), and in particular for those working within the CARG Project. In fact, the Glossary must be taken as the reference for the vocabulary of terms occurring in the Legend, the side-elements of the Geological Sheet, and the related Explanatory Notes, as well as in the GDB. The Glossary 3.0 entirely replaces the previous versions.