Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemSnapshot of SDI Development in Australia: Models, Partnerships and Lead Agencies Advancing Implementation( 2002)Australia is entering a new era for spatial data infrastructure (SDI) demonstrated by the unification of prime sectors of the spatial information industry and a renewed Government focus on spatial information. A spatial information stock take is required to review progress to date and evaluate current directions. SDI is deemed essential for the provision of services to support modern society's information needs and can be considered in the same manner as other public service infrastructure such as roads and utilities.This paper will evaluate progress since the release of ANZLIC's (1996) model for a SDI for Australia and New Zealand, identify the agencies driving SDI in Australia and will highlight key initiatives contributing to the ASDI development. Selected countries with advanced National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) programs will also be discussed in relation to developments of the SDI model within Australia. The paper contributes to research conducted by the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration at the University of Melbourne on SDI and to a new project being undertaken to develop a methodology to map the complex nature of the institutional arrangements and partnerships that support NSDI with particular focus on the ASDI.
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ItemFrom Little Things Big Things Grow: Building the SDI from Local Government Up( 2002)The successful building of a multi-jurisdictional SDI has the potential to deliver significant benefits to the community, business and government through improved access to a range of relevant geospatial data. An effective National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) requires the vertical integration of spatial data at all levels of government. With local government being a custodian of a number of key SDI data sets, its role is now recognised as crucial to the development of the State and National Spatial Data Infrastructures. This paper will investigate some of the technical and institutional impediments that must be addressed within local and state jurisdictions in order to realise these benefits. An overview of the current status of local-state SDI arrangements in Australia will be presented as a basis for discussion. A framework for the further investigation and research into these issues will be outlined and some suggestions for progress put forward.
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ItemResearching frameworks for evolving Spatial Data Infrastructure( 2000)Technology and infrastructure both play key roles in achieving the optimisation of spatial data to support decision-making, in the spatial data community. Many institutional and technical initiatives have arisen in response to the increase in quantity and improving quality of spatial data to help users to structure the influx. However, there are persistent challenges to integrating institutional and technical solutions to optimise the utilisation of available spatial data. Embracing and continuing to develop a flexible, methodological, framework for the integration of decision-supporting technologies with infrastructure is fundamental to supporting effective incorporation of spatial data in decision-making. This paper reviews the nature of current developments of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) and Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS) and discusses issues pertinent to the optimisation of spatial data utilisation, access and management to support spatial decision making environments. A research procedure is proposed to investigate the hypothesis that increasing the functionality of SDIs to support the use of spatial data for decision making can be facilitated by developing methods for the integration of SDSS. Literal and meta-level models are developed of the data flows between SDSS, SDIs and decision makers from data gathered via a case study methodology. The research will provide the means for designing a methodological framework that will enable integration of SDSS by SDIs to enhance facilitation of the capacity for spatial data utilisation in decision-making.
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ItemBest practices for land administration systems in developing countries( 2000)This paper provides an introduction to best practice in land administration systems. It draws ona number of key documents such as the Land Administration Guidelines produced for theUnited Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Europe (1996), the International Federation ofSurveyors (FIG) Statement on the Cadastre (1995), the UN-FIG Bogor Declaration onCadastral Reform (1996), the FIG Cadastre 2014 publication (1998) and the UN-FIG BathurstDeclaration on Land Administration for Sustainable Development (1999).It also draws on a wide range of publications concerned with best practice in the developmentof cadastral and land administration infrastructures, as well as the author's experience overmany years. While the paper is focussed on world's best practice, it does so in the context ofdeveloping and emerging industrial countries such as Indonesia which have diverse land tenurerelationships ranging from areas in cities with active land markets approaching modern landmarkets, to whole provinces which are almost completely under traditional or customary tenure.While the paper recognises that each country has different requirements for cadastral and landadministration infrastructures due to their specific social, legal, cultural, economic, institutionaland administrative circumstances, the paper highlights some common principles in the design and implementation of land administration infrastructures that are usually applicable forcountries such as Indonesia, either now or in the foreseeable future. Importantly not allprinciples will be applicable for all countries.The paper discusses the principles under the following headings:1. Land policy principles2. Land tenure principles3. Land administration and cadastral principles4. Institutional principles5. Spatial data infrastructure principles6. Technical principles7. Human resource development principlesThe paper concludes by highlighting the importance of developing a vision for a landadministration system within
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ItemThe United Nations - International Federation of SurveyorsDeclaration on Land Administration for Sustainable Development( 2000)The changing humankind-land relationship and current global and local drivers suchas sustainable development, urbanization, globalization, economic reform and theinformation revolution, demand land administration responses. Of the global drivers,sustainable development may be identified as having overall significance because ofits dynamic economic-political, social, and environmental dimensions. At the heart ofthe challenging opportunity-cost decisions for sustainable development is the pressingneed for land administration systems to evolve speedily and appropriately to supportthe sustainable development imperative.Current land administration systems are the product of 19th century paradigms of landmarkets, which have a narrow cadastral (land parcel) focus. As a result they havefailed to properly support these global and local drivers. The evidence of the failureincludes issues of poverty, access to land, security of tenure, development rights andenvironmental degradation.World opinion on aspects of sustainable development, as represented by UnitedNations (UN) global summits and declarations (for example UN Earth Summit, Riode Janeiro, 1994; UN City Summit, Istanbul, 1998; UN Food Summit, Rome, 1998),have highlighted the importance of land administration to support sustainabledevelopment, but have provided few practical implementation strategies. This ad hocapproach has resulted in rhetoric, rather than reality, in developing land administrationsystems to accommodate sustainable development objectives. Governments, on theother hand, have generally been willing, if not anxious, to reform land administrationfor sustainable objectives, but there are no clear directions or models to adopt.As a preliminary step towards overcoming the uncertain relationship between landadministration and sustainable development, a joint United Nations-InternationalFederation of Surveyors Workshop on Land Tenure and Cadastral Infrastructures forSustainable Development was organised in B
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ItemEnabling geographic information systems for the public health sector: a proposal for the research agenda( 2000)The health sector has been recognised internationally as one area of the potential new applications of geographic technologies1. Several groups in Australia and world-wide have been working with the application of geospatial information and Geographic Information Systems to aspects of health2-4.Since new applications need to address and solve issues that have not necessarily been considered or were not relevant to other applications with a longer tradition in GIS, this research agenda contributes to a more global research agenda on GIS. This paper details the outcomes of the 'Research Agenda for Geographic Information Systems and Health' project carried out at The University of Melbourne, Australia. In describing the project of a research agenda, this paper provides a summary of the major issues in need of discussion and research in the application of GIS to the Australian health sector to date, as perceived by the major stakeholders. The authors consider the issues most able to contribute to strengthening the future use of geospatial information in health service planning and service delivery. The body of what has been identified as important to a future research agenda has emerged from a consultative process. In particular, this includes the Second Symposium on GIS and Health, 'Developments in the Application of Geographic Information Systems within the Health Sector'; and a workshop on 'GIS in Public Health Research' held in June 1998. Both forum were attended by key public health, research, industry, government and education professionals from interstate and overseas, known to be interested and involved in projects of a GIS and health nature.
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ItemFuture applications of GIS: depth vs breadth: the case of the Land Use Profiler( 2000)As society becomes increasingly spatially enabled, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) will evolve, and geographical information will be embedded in most information applications and services that society uses. This trend presents many opportunities and challenges. It means GIS technologies will facilitate 'more' by becoming' less'. As the general use of GIS increases, the visible appearance of GIS decreases, as it becomes an integrated part of organisational and societal information systems. The trend is for GIS to move from a multi-use tool for project and departmental systems, to specific product systems for multiple users, multiple applications and multiple purposes. These new systems are not all technically GIS, but are systems with embedded geographic knowledge, and the data and tools to capitalise upon the capabilities and to facilitate distribution. The Land Use Profiler (LUP) system is an easy to use spatial analysis tool developed by the Department of Infrastructure in Victoria. It constitutes an illustration of these trends in GIS. Developed to locate areas of land best suited to particular land-use purposes, the LUP is a tool being piloted to facilitate preliminary investment decisions. The LUP adopts user-friendly interfaces, easy-to-assemble query structures and GIS embedding to facilitate broad-spectrum inquiries across a number of datasets using a 'what-if-analysis'. The use and implementation of such a tool raises interesting issues about the transparency of spatial information processing. It reinforces the developmental trends of GIS and provides an indication where these trends may lead.
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ItemAutomating the administration boundary design process using Hierarchical Spatial Reasoning theory and Geographic Information Systems( 2000)Throughout history, humankind has segmented and delineated the geographic environment in various ways to support administrative, political and economic activities. To date, the majority of spatial boundaries have been constructed in an uncoordinated manner with individual organisations generating individual boundaries to meet individual needs. This practice has resulted in boundary layers that even the most sophisticated Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is unable to cross analyse accurately. Consequently, geospatial information is fragmented over a series of boundary units. The objective of this paper is to present the findings of a research project aimed to investigate new methods for the organisation of spatial data by applying the principles of Hierarchical Spatial Reasoning (HSR), where HSR can be used as the theoretical framework for investigating the hierarchical structuring of space. In the first section, the paper outlines the problem of data exchange and data integration encountered world-wide when utilising current administrative boundaries and the data attached to them. It also reviews the most commonly adopted methods to overcome the problem and the issues inherent to these methods. Secondly, the paper introduces the concept and theory of HSR and reviews common practices in boundary design. The paper summarises constraints and issues arising from the use of GIS jointly with HSR in polygon-base design. Thirdly, an HSR-based prototype developed for delineating boundaries within the GIS environment is detailed. This prototype has been constructed utilising the state of Victoria, Australia as a working laboratory for development and analysis. The prototype has been implemented in ArcView (ESRI) using cadastre (land parcels), road network and major natural barriers as the core information and Avenue as the programming language. In the prototype, the agencies considered were ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) and Australia Post due to their widely acceptance and use amongst institutions and individuals dealing with geospatial data and analyses.
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ItemHierarchical spatial reasoning applied to the automated design of administrative boundaries using GIS( 2000)Throughout history, humankind has segmented and delineated the geospatial environment in various ways to support administrative, political and economic activities. To date, the majority of spatial boundaries have been constructed in an uncoordinated manner with individual organisations generating individual boundaries to meet individual needs. This practice has resulted in boundary layers that even the most sophisticated GIS (Geographic Information System) technology is unable to cross analyse accurately. Consequently, geospatial information is fragmented over a series of boundary units. The objective of this paper is to investigate new methods for the organisation of spatial data by applying the principles of Hierarchical Spatial Reasoning (HSR), where HSR can be used as the theoretical framework for investigating the hierarchical structuring of space and for providing new methods for accurate data exchange. Also, to present the issues found in the development of a prototype developed for delineating boundaries within the GIS environment. This prototype has been constructed utilising the state of Victoria, Australia as a working laboratory for development and analysis.
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ItemAre SDIs serving the needs of local planning?: case studies of Victoria, Australia and Illinois, USA( 2001)National spatial data infrastructures (SDI) have been initiated and built throughout 1990s in both Australia and the U.S., initiated and coordinated by the Australia New Zealand Land Information Council (ANZLIC) and the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), respectively. Numerous SDI-related activities at the national, state, and local level in both countries share similar core objectives, which are to stimulate coordinated collection, dissemination, and use of spatial data by public and private entities. This coordination is to result in digital databases that would be easily accessible and seamless across administrative and organizational boundaries and that would help secure social, environmental, and economic benefits to the involved communities. The improved information resources at the local level in particular are expected to contribute to sustainable urban development and to enhance the cooperation between government and nongovernment sectors. This paper raises the question about the actual effectiveness of the existing SDI developments and about the outcomes of the related interactions between the local, state, and national levels. Case study of local governments in Victoria, Australia and Illinois, U.S. are used to evaluate the utility of existing SDIs to local planning activities and to offer recommendations for increasing their effectiveness in supporting sustainable development.