Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemBridging SDI design gaps(Centre of Geo-Information Technologies (cGIT), 2006)The environment we inhabit is integrated and to properly manage the environment it is necessary to look at all environmental components and making multi-criteria decision about environment mostly needs an integrated view of built and natural environmental components to better interpret it.Despite the integrated nature of environment and requirements of users to integrate different components of environment, information about different elements of environment is being collected and managed by fragmented agencies under different and mostly inconsistent policies and standards to satisfy their own needs –for a single discipline- with little attention to the broad range of users – a multi-disciplinary approach. This fragmentation results in heterogeneity of technical and non-technical issues surrounding integration of datasets.An SDI is an initiative to facilitate the cooperation among all stakeholders and the interaction with standards and technological components and one of its objectives is to facilitate the integration of multi-source spatial data sets.This paper aims to address different issues connected to the integration of multi-source data sets in order to better serve different communities through their SDI initiatives and also a better management and sharing of their spatial data. The paper aims to discuss both technical and non-technical issues related to the integration of multi-source data sets in alignment with an ongoing research project devoted to developing models, guidelines and associated tools to facilitate the integration of multi-source datasets within an SDI.
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ItemThe role of sub-national government and the private sector in future Spatial Data Infrastructures( 2006-08)A Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) facilitates and coordinates the exchange and sharing of spatial data between stakeholders in the spatial data community. With this objective in mind, countries throughout the world are developing SDIs to manage and utilise their spatial data assets more effectively. These countries are developing SDIs to assist in various kinds of decision-making at different levels of government jurisdictions that have an important impact within their national boundaries. However, current research shows that SDI is understood and described differently by stakeholders from different disciplines and different jurisdictional levels. Therefore, in many cases SDI initiatives remain very much an innovation even among practitioners. There are still uncertainties regarding the benefits and identities of SDIs, particularly in connection with how they evolve over time to meet user needs.This paper reviews and assesses the development of SDIs throughout the world over the past fifteen years and the leadership role of national governments in SDI creation. This assessment is based on the SDI activities of various jurisdictions including Asia-Pacific, Australia, North America and Europe and research into the worldwide effects of spatial information clearinghouses. This assessment includes a discussion on emerging trends in SDI development, with particular reference to the increasingly important role played by sub-national governments and the private sector within the framework of SDI development. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for future SDI development, including the delivery of a virtual world that has a particular focus on facilitating decision making at a community level within a national context.
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ItemAssessing the worldwide comparison of cadastral systems(Elsevier, 2006)There is growing interest internationally in land administration and cadastral systems and especially in their role as part of a national Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). The important role the cadastre plays in supporting sustainable development is also well recognised. Both developed and developing countries accept the need to evaluate cadastral systems to help identify areas of improvement and whether their systems are capable of addressing future needs. Countries are continually re-engineering and implementing various aspects of the cadastre, comparing systems and trying to identify best practice within nations of the same socio-economic standing.In order to address this need, members of a team from the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration at the Department of Geomatics, the University of Melbourne, with the support of the United Nations Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific (PCGIAP) and the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), have developed a cadastral template. The template aims to assist the evaluation and benchmarking of cadastral systems and the role they play in spatial data infrastructures.This paper aims to outline the concept and theory behind the cadastral template as well as analysing the results from 34 completed country templates. Several indicators have been used to analyse and benchmark countries cadastral systems, results of which will contribute to an improved understanding of the complex relationship between cadastral, land administration system and National SDI initiatives. This will also enable a worldwide comparison of cadastral systems, forming the basis for best practice and a tool to improve national cadastral systems.
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ItemThe role [of] cadastral data modelling in e-land administration(Centre of Geo-Information Technologies (cGIT), 2005)Enablement of land administration with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is heading toward e-Land Administration (e-LA): the transformation of land administration through the use of ICT. Existing initiatives include providing land information on line, electronic conveyancing, digital lodgement of survey plans, and online access to survey plan information. Thus far, implementation of these initiatives is isolated in their specific subsystems without reference to the broader land administration system or its core policy function of supporting sustainable development. One solution to isolation is to develop effective communication among the different land administration subsystems by harmonising data and functionalities, so they are capable of being used by all subsystems. The key to harmonisation is data modelling which both recognizes and reengineers existing business processes. Modelling allows every single process in land administration to influence the cadastral data model and vice versa. This paper describes the importance of cadastral data modelling in data management as well as coordination among subsystems in an e-LA.
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ItemDeveloping a platform to facilitate sharing spatial data(Centre of Geo-Information Technologies (cGIT)., 2005)Users of positioning and spatial information services and tools require precise spatial information in real-time and real-world objects. Simply an accurate positioning of a future subdivision is no longer accepted by users, they require it to be visualized as well, in order to take into account outside influences. The capacity to meet such user needs and deliver services and tools within the spatial information market has gone well beyond the ability of single organisations (Rajabifard, et al, 2005a). There is now a wide range of products and services available for a wide range of information technology applications, and hence the development of an enabling platform can facilitate access to data and sharing resources and tools among different practitioners. The creation of an enabling platform for the delivery of these tools and positioning applications will allow users from diverse backgrounds to work together with current technologies to meet the dynamic market place. Up until now, individual jurisdictions within Australia for example have started utilizing different platforms in attempting to create mechanisms for accessing and delivering spatial data and associated applications and tools in a coordinated fashion. This has been done through the use of hierarchies of information, where jurisdictions utilize information both by those within a jurisdictional level as well as those at a higher or lower jurisdictional level. The benefits of this sharing of information have been documented, however they do not necessarily break down the barriers between jurisdictions. Just because different information can be gained about Victorian state for example from different jurisdictional levels, does not mean that the information will necessarily be compatible (it may not be of the same accuracy or have the same specifications, utilize the same symbology, etc) (Rajabifard, et al, 2005b). There is now a need to create a common rail gauge within Australia to aid in implementing initiatives which solve cross jurisdictional and national issues. In order to meet this need, there is a requirement for an enabling platform.
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ItemEvaluation of land administration systems( 2004)Currently there are no internationally accepted methodologies to evaluate and compare the performance of land administration systems. This is partly because land administration systems are in constant reform, and probably more importantly, they represent societies’ different perceptions of land. This paper describes the development of a framework to measure and compare the performance of land administration systems. The research is of particular relevance since it develops a management model which links the operational aspects of land administration with land policy.
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ItemDeveloping the concept of a marine cadastre: an Australian case study( 2004-05)In the terrestrial environment, it is the cadastre and initiatives such as the creation of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) that are facilitating greater decision making in areas of sustainable development. The ability of such tools and initiatives to facilitate effective decision-making and spatial data access mechanisms within the marine environment has given rise to research into a marine cadastre. Such a cadastre aims to define, visualise and realise legally defined maritime boundaries and the rights, restrictions and responsibilities attached to them.
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ItemFacilitating disaster management using SDI( 2004)The role of spatial data and related technologies in disaster management has been well-known worldwide. One of the challenges concerned with such a role is access to and usage of reliable, accurate and up-to-date spatial data for disaster management. This is a very important aspect to disaster response as timely, up-to-date and accurate spatial data describing the current situation is paramount to successfully responding to an emergency. This includes information about available resources, access to roads and damaged areas, required resources, and required disaster response operations that should be available and accessible for use in a short period of time. Sharing this information between involved parties in disaster management is a challenge to facilitate coordinated disaster response operations. This paper aims to address the role of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) as a framework for facilitating disaster management. It is argued that the design and implementation of an SDI model as a framework and consideration of SDI development factors and issues can assist disaster management agencies to improve the quality of their decision-making and increase efficiency and effectiveness in all levels of disaster management activities. The paper is based on an ongoing research project on the development of an SDI conceptual model for disaster management in Iran. This includes the development of a prototype web-based system which can facilitate sharing, access and use of data in disaster management and particularly disaster response.
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ItemA worldwide comparison of cadastral systems: cadastral template( 2004-05)While many country reports and descriptions have been compiled in the area of land administration over the last ten years, there has not much attention been given to the basic cadastral issues and the role of cadastres in national spatial data infrastructures. PCGIAP-Working Group 3 "Cadastre" together with FIG-Commission 7 "Cadastre and Land Management" has developed a joint cadastral template that has so far been filled out by 32 countries. This project is one of the first to collect descriptions of national cadastral systems on such a broad basis and to have them publicly accessible on the Internet.The PCGIAP-Working Group 3 "Cadastre" has two aims for the period 2002-2004. One is to facilitate a workshop for the development of an appropriate generic "cadastral template" for country profile analyses describing the status of national cadastres and land administration systems. The second aim is to facilitate discussion on marine cadastres. This article, however, will focus on the cadastral template.The workshop for the cadastral template has been held in July 2003 prior to the 16th UNRCC-AP and the 9th PCGIAP meeting in Okinawa, Japan and has been organized with the support of the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration from the Department of Geomatics of the University of Melbourne in Australia. The design of the cadastral template itself has been established in close collaboration with Commission 7 "Cadastre and Land Management" of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), which has extensive experience in comparative cadastral studies.
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ItemAre SDIs serving the needs of local planning? case study of Victoria, Australia and Illinois, USA(Elsevier Ltd., 2004)National spatial data infrastructures (SDI) have been built throughout the 1990s in bothAustralia and the USA, conceptualized and initialized by the Australia New Zealand LandInformation Council (ANZLIC) and the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC),respectively. Numerous SDI-related activities at the national, state, and local levels in bothcountries share similar core objectives to stimulate coordinated collection, dissemination, anduse of spatial data by public and private entities. This coordination is to result in digitaldatabases that would be easily accessible and seamless across administrative and organizationalboundaries and that would contribute social, environmental, and economic benefits tothe involved communities. Improved information resources, at the local level in particular, areexpected to aid decision-making process and to enhance cooperation between government andnon-government sectors. This paper raises a question about the effectiveness of existing SDIdevelopments and about outcomes of the related interactions between the local, state, andnational levels. Case studies of local governments in Victoria, Australia and Illinois, USA areused to evaluate the utility of existing SDIs to local planning activities and to make suggestionsfor increasing their effectiveness.