USGS Louisiana Subsidence Database (LASED) project. 
http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/LA-subsidence/

Project Information:

The Mississippi River delta plain is subject to the highest rate of relative sea-level rise (3 ft per century) of any region in the Nation largely due to rapid geologic subsidence. Subsidence impacts the socio-economic infra-structure of southeastern Louisiana placing the communities and infra- structure at risk of being inundated by the rising sea.

Compounding the subsidence problem is the forecast that the world's oceans will rise over the next century due to global atmospheric warming. Together the rising sea and subsidence accelerate coastal erosion and wetland loss, increase flooding, and increase the extent and frequency of severe storm impacts.

To assess the impact of marine transgression caused by subsidence and sea-level rise at a given location, it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of the natural processes that operate on the delta plain. Reliable scientific data are needed to identify the 'hot spots' of subsidence, where infrastructure is most at risk, and what are the best strategies to sustain and restore Louisiana's coastal wetlands.

In this collaborative study, the US Geological Survey (USGS), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and University of New Orleans (UNO) are responsible for developing an objective and reliable scientific database on subsidence and sea-level rise for managers, planners, and researchers by conducting detailed studies within the Mississippi River delta plain.

Geodatabase:
Our task in the project was to build a geodatabase to store Louisiana Subsidence seismic and core collected datasets.  The geodatabase, LASED, is built on the ESRI Marine Data Model. Core tables were based on the ROSS and usSEABED database schemas and were modified specifically for the LASED. The geodatabase allows the users to view the vector and raster data either using an ArcGIS interface or the ArcIMS.  The users are able to create queries to retrieve core, seismic, cruise, trackline, or any other information regarding the LASED project. Once queried, users can then view or download core photos, core logs, interactive html seismic profiles, and/or core documents relating to their query. Feature classes were hyperlinked to pdfs, documents, gifs, etc.

Design and population of LASED is ongoing, so the present schema does not contain the core table spatial relationships. These will be available in an updated schema once the links have been established.