Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications

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    New roles of land administration systems
    Williamson, I. P. ; Wallace, J. ( 2007)
    This paper sketches the key issues in the history of land administration in terms relevant to the experiences of countries in the Asia Pacific Region. It is a first step in building a national land administration vision and is influenced by empirical research on European and Australian approaches. The vision is especially influenced by three trends in global land administration theory and practice, especially during the last five years and include: sustainable development; spatial enablement; and theoretical achievements in land administration.The challenges for modern land administration systems and in modern government are presented including the roles of land administration in formalizing land markets, implementing and understanding regulations and restrictions, and changing the nature of ownership. The role of spatial enablement and understanding the potential of iLand, the concept of integrated spatially enabled land information available on the Web, are central to understanding the national vision for land administration in Australia. Finally, future directions within technical and operational issues and collaboration and capacity building are presented to assist creation of a new land management model and national vision for spatially enabled land administration by countries in the APR.
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    Building land markets in the Asia Pacific region
    Williamson, I. P. ; Wallace, J. ( 2007)
    Land markets attract wide participation, all over the globe. Market activities receive intense analysis from economists and bankers, investors and developers, and they interest millions of people. Meanwhile, how to build a land market remains a mystery. Those countries that achieved effective modern land markets have the benefit of well run land administration systems. These systems therefore offer the key to building a market. The problem is that building land administration capacity does not always assist the creation and management of a successful land market. There are two explanations for this. First the complexity of a formal land market is not well understood. Second the different kinds of land administration infrastructures that are needed to support land markets as they develop from simple land trading into complex commodity markets need to be identified and implemented. These issues are explored below. The perspective of this exploration is that of an engineer interested in designing, building and managing the infrastructure needed to support modern land markets.
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    Spatially Enabling Government – an International Challenge
    Williamson, I. P. ; Rajabifard, A. ; Wallace, J. ( 2007)
    The popular use of spatial technologies involves showing images and tracking assets and inventory in an increasing array of instruments, the most common being the ubiquitous mobile phone. These technologies penetrate into even low income poor countries, but their take-up and development concentrates in highly developed countries. This high-end use of these technologies will determine their future. Remarkable as these popular applications are, spatial technologies can also be used in even more dynamic, transformational ways. Transformational use of spatial technologies occurs when they are used to improve business processes of government, and assist delivery of policies for equitable taxation, conservation of natural resources and planning for rational growth. Use of this transformational capacity of spatial technologies in government creates a spatially enabled government (SEG). The major impediment to take-up of spatial information is counter-intuitive. We all use the new technology in our daily lives, but our capacity to understand the power of spatial information is remarkably small. In fact only about 1% of people in any society really understand spatial information with about 5% of people knowing something about the special technology. For 95% of people, spatial information and its supporting technologies is a mystery. Teaching people about spatial information and its technologies is therefore the first task in painting a vision of what is possible. The attractions of spatial technologies lie in how they present information, whether users rely on computers and the Internet, or on communications technologies. The adage of a “picture tells a thousand words” is now out of date. New digital pictures tell many stories, and, if the enabling platform is built, the pictures will become management tools of government. Spatial technologies are moving quickly. In Australia, since October 2006, Google Maps and Google Earth, combined with a geocoded national address
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    Spatial Data Integration Challenges: Australian Case Studies
    MOHAMMADI, H ; RAJABIFARD, A ; BINNS, A ; WILLIAMSON, I (Spatial Sciences Institute, 2007)
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    Seamless SDI Model to Facilitate Spatially Enabled Land-Sea Interface
    SHEIKHESLAMI VAEZ, S ; RAJABIFARD, A ; BINNS, A ; WILLIAMSON, I (Spatial Sciences Institute, 2007)
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    Developing marine SDI to facilitate marine administration - the spatial dimension
    Vaez, Sheelan ; RAJABIFARD, ABBAS ; WILLIAMSON, IAN ( 2007)
    The coastal zone is a unique geologic, ecological and biological domain of vital importance to a vast array of terrestrial and aquatic life forms - including humankind. Managing the plethora of rights, restrictions and responsibilities of resources within the marine environment and at the littoral zone has created one of the world’s most complex areas of management. Evidently effective administration and management of these areas to meet the economic, social and environmental objectives of sustainable development is required. Until recently spatial information management and administration tools have focussed on the terrestrial environment. Initiatives such as the 3rd United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Sustainable Development Strategy for the Seas of East Asia (SDS-SEA) have bought to attention the importance of sustainable development of the coastal and marine environment. The concepts of marine spatial data infrastructure (SDI), marine cadastre and marine spatial planning have all emerged recently in response to a global realisation of the need to improve management and administration of the marine environment. The underlying theme of these initiatives is the importance of including a spatial dimension to marine administration. A more integrated and holistic approach to management of coastal and marine environments would be facilitated by the extension of the SDI on a seamless platform. This would promote data sharing and harmonisation between large numbers of diverse data holdings and an increasingly large number of initiatives in marine data thus facilitating better decision-making involving marine and coastal spatial information. A seamless SDI platform would enable the utilisation of common boundaries across the coastal zone to ensure no ambiguity exists and no areas are unaccounted for over the coastal interface. This paper discusses the potential for adding a marine dimension to an SDI in the context of seamless model to facilitate marine and coastal zone administration and highlights the need for access to and interoperability of data from marine, coastal and terrestrial environments resulting to the better and more integrated management of coastal zone. Ideally this framework would harmonise the stewardship of and access to marine data and information, thereby facilitating improved management of marine environment.
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    Mapping and Managing Land Interests
    BENNETT, R ; WALLACE, J ; WILLIAMSON, I (Spatial Sciences Institute, 2007)
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    Building new markets in the Asia Pacific Region
    WILLIAMSON, IAN ; WALLACE, JUDE ( 2007)
    Land markets attract wide participation, all over the globe. Market activities receive intense analysis from economists and bankers, investors and developers, and they interest millions of people. Meanwhile, how to build a land market remains a mystery. Those countries that achieved effective modern land markets have the benefit of well run land administration systems. These systems therefore offer the key to building a market. The problem is that building land administration capacity does not always assist the creation and management of a successful land market. There are two explanations for this. First the complexity of a formal land market is not well understood. Second the different kinds of land administration infrastructures that are needed to support land markets as they develop from simple land trading into complex commodity markets need to be identified and implemented. These issues are explored below. The perspective of this exploration is that of an engineer interested in designing, building and managing the infrastructure needed to support modern land markets.
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    Developing a seamless SDI model across the land-sea interface
    Vaez, Sheelan Sheikheslami ; RAJABIFARD, ABBAS ; BINNS, ANDREW ; Williamson, Ian Philip ( 2007)
    A more integrated and holistic approach to management of spatial information relating to coastal and marine environments is needed and this can be facilitated by the creation of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) on a seamless platform. There is a growing and urgent need to create a seamless SDI model that bridges the gap between the terrestrial and marine environments, creating a spatially enabled land-sea interface to more effectively meet sustainable development objectives. This paper discusses the principles and concepts followed by introduction to issues and challenges that must be overcome in developing an overarching architecture for a seamless SDI that allows access to and interoperability of data from marine, coastal and terrestrial environments.
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    Building the spatial data infrastructure through data sharing: measuring progress within Australian local and state government jurisdictions
    MCDOUGALL, KEVIN ; RAJABIFARD, ABBAS ; Williamson, Ian Philip ( 2007)
    In the past decade efforts to develop spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) have migrated from the initial “top-down” national approaches to “bottom-up” and cross jurisdictional efforts at the sub-national level. Although national SDI developments are fundamental to building the SDI culture and policy, it is sub-national and local SDI development that will deliver the immediate benefits to citizens and the community. In countries which have highly decentralised federations of states such as Australia, United States and Canada, the challenge is how to co-ordinate the literally thousands of often small local government jurisdictions which are important contributors to state and local SDIs. In recent years, a number of co-operative spatial data sharing partnerships between local and state government have emerged in Australia. These partnerships are relatively new initiatives that have been established to facilitate more effective sharing of spatial data between organisations, but also as a mechanism to contribute to SDI development. To maximise the benefits from these partnerships it is essential to understand the factors that contribute to their successful operation and sustainability. This paper investigates these collaborative arrangements and examines the motivations, mechanisms and frameworks for data sharing between local and state governments.