The EMOTION Web-portal: Geochemical Data for Geothermal Exploration.

Fluid geochemistry constitutes a cost-effective and fairly reliable tool in the first phase of geothermal exploration, providing insights into several characteristics of geothermal systems, such as typology, temperature, and the extension of the water recharge areas. Accordingly, a free-access web portal, exploring detailed geochemical and isotopic data of geothermal fluids (thermal springs, mineral waters, gas-rich waters and gas vents) can facilitate and accelerate preliminary reconnaissance stages of geothermal exploration. On the other hand, a public data portal can promote data sharing and reuse. However, the intrinsic heterogeneity and variability in format and provenance of geochemical data hinder the development and widespread adoption of web portals for geochemical data. As a consequence, geochemical data web portals for geothermal fluids are currently limited in scope and not comprehensive.

In the framework of the EMOTION project (funded by the INGV-MUR Pianeta Dinamico Project), we have created the EMOTION web portal, an innovative free-access national portal designed to centralise, standardise, visualise and distribute geochemical and isotopic data of geothermal manifestations in Italy. The EMOTION web portal has been specifically designed to: 1) harmonise existing geochemical and isotopic data and upload newly and updated acquired data through dedicated data and metadata structures; 2) standardise and homogenise both geochemical and isotopic data with geospatial parameters; 3) store data and metadata in a centralised, structured and dedicated database; 4) issue interactive maps for intuitive spatial data visualisation and customisable geochemical plots. The web portal assembles about 4,500 samples of fluids of geothermal interest that can be geographically visualised based on type categories and compositional information, as the user prefers.

This web-portal upholds the Open Science and FAIR  principles, i.e., Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. It has been developed using the Free Open Source Software (FOSS) R project for statistical computing and specific modules for interactive exploratory data analysis, such as “Shiny”, “Plotly” and “Leaflet”. To encourage accessibility, openness and repeatability, all source codes as well as (meta)data are publicly available, and access to the web-portal is free-of-charge. (Meta)data use a formal, well-known and accessible language, promoting interoperability and reusability with any applications for storing, analysing and processing. Interoperability with existing data infrastructures, such as the European Plate Observing System (EPOS), can also be ensured through a dedicated web service that provides standardised access to data and metadata.

Besides supporting and facilitating geothermal exploration, the EMOTION web portal serves as a scalable model for analogous initiatives. On the other hand, the web-portal promotes geochemistry as a bridge with other disciplines in the investigation of all properties of geothermal reservoirs and can serve as an essential component of monitoring to ensure efficient and sustainable energy extraction, also encouraging stakeholders and researchers to create increasingly holistic infrastructures and platforms to achieve shared goals.