(See USGS Digital Data Series DDS-69-E) A geographic information system focusing on the Jurassic-Cretaceous Cotton Valley Group was developed for the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) 2002 assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and natural gas resources of the Gulf Coast Region. The USGS Energy Resources Science Center has developed map and metadata services to deliver the 2002 assessment results GIS data and services online.

The Gulf Coast assessment is based on geologic elements of a total petroleum system (TPS) as described in Dyman and Condon (2005). The estimates of undiscovered oil and gas resources are within assessment units (AUs). The hydrocarbon assessment units include the assessment results as attributes within the AU polygon feature class (in geodatabase and shapefile format). Quarter-mile cells of the land surface that include single or multiple wells were created by the USGS to illustrate the degree of exploration and the type and distribution of production for each assessment unit. Other data that are available in the map documents and services include the TPS and USGS province boundaries.

To easily distribute the Gulf Coast maps and GIS data, a web mapping application has been developed by the USGS, and customized ArcMap (by ESRI) projects are available for download at the Energy Resources Science Center Gulf Coast website. ArcGIS Publisher (by ESRI) was used to create a published map file (pmf) from each ArcMap document (.mxd). The basemap services being used in the GC map applications are from ArcGIS Online Services (by ESRI), and include the following layers:

-- Satellite imagery

-- Shaded relief

-- Transportation

-- States

-- Counties

-- Cities

-- National Forests

With the ESRI_StreetMap_World_2D service, detailed data, such as railroads and airports, appear as the user zooms in at larger scales.

This map service shows the structural configuration on the top of the Cotton Valley Group in feet below sea level. The map was produced by calculating the difference between a datum at the land surface (either the kelly bushing elevation or the ground surface elevation) and the reported depth of the Cotton Valley Group. This map service also shows the thickness of the interval from the top of the Cotton Valley Group to the top of the Smackover Formation.