Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 106
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The role [of] cadastral data modelling in e-land administration
    Kalantari, M. ; Rajabifard, A. ; Wallace, J. ; Williamson, I. P. (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.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The future role of the cadastre
    WILLIAMSON, IAN ( 2005)
    An important component of all nation states is building and maintaining a cadastral infrastructure. This includes cadastral surveys to identify and subdivide land, land registry systems to support simple land trading (buying, selling, mortgaging and leasing land) and land information systems to facilitate access to the relevant information increasingly through a web enabled e-government environment. For many cadastral officials and for much of society, this is the primary, and in many cases the only role of the cadastre. However the potential and role of the cadastre has rapidly expanded over the last couple of decades. Most governments assume that the primary task of this cadastral infrastructure is to support the operation of an efficient and effective land market. But what is a land market in a modern economy? Since our cadastral systems were invented, land commodities and trading patterns have undergone substantial changes: they have become complex, corporatised and international. Are our current cadastral systems designed to support a modern land market that trades in complex commodities such as mortgage backed certificates, water rights, land information, time shares, unit and property trusts, financial instruments, insurance products, options, corporate development instruments and vertical villages? Modern land markets involve a complex and dynamic range of activities, processes and opportunities and are impacted upon by a whole new range of restrictions and responsibilities now being imposed on land. They are continually evolving, primarily in response to economic energy and sustainable development objectives. They are also being driven by information and communications technologies. While modern land markets offer almost unlimited opportunities for cadastral systems to expand their relevance and usefulness, one commodity in particular - land information - has the ability of transforming the way both governments and the private sector in modern economies do business. The e-land administration concept as part of e-government initiatives is now being replaced by iLand – a new vision for spatially enabled land information. While the original purpose of cadastres was essential and useful in facilitating simple land trading to support expanding economies, and modern land markets with their complex commodities offer potential opportunities to take another leap forward, it is the land information derived from the cadastre that has the potential to transform the way modern societies function. It has the potential of transforming how tax is collected, how health services are delivered, how the environment and our cities are managed, how we respond to emergencies and terrorism, how wars are fought and how elections are run. Linked to such transformational technologies such as Google Earth and Microsoft's Virtual Earth, cadastral information has the potential for spatially enabling government (and society).
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Developing a platform to facilitate sharing spatial data
    RAJABIFARD, ABBAS ; BINNS, ANDREW ; WILLIAMSON, IAN (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.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Toward e-land administration : Australian online land information services
    Kalantari, M. ; Rajabifard, A. ; Wallace, J. ; Williamson, I. P. ( 2005)
    Sustainable development (SD) is accepted as a central driver in countries world wide with land administration playing an important role in delivering SD objectives. Within this context the emerging use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) are increasingly being utilised by land administration organizations. These technologies provide opportunities for better service delivery and customer satisfaction and a reduction in operating costs. However establishment of these systems as part of e-land administration and in the context of e-government has to date not been fully realised and is often problematic.E-land administration includes the coordination among various parts of land administration businesses including front office operations like online customer services and private partnership services, and also back office operations like internal work flow and central data base management. The first step in improving the current systems within a particular jurisdiction is assessing the current performance of online land information services as part of e-land administration.There are various initiatives to deliver land related information over the Internet for the public in the different Australian states. Analysing these experiences and determining good practice will assist in proposing effective and innovative solutions to improve or re-engineer the existing services as a key infrastructure for implementing e-land administration services.This paper first introduces and discusses various quality of service criteria for the assessment of an online land information system. The criteria include popularity, performance, functionality and user requirements of services. The paper then reviews and presents current land administration services in Australian states including a statistical analysis to better understand the advantages and deficiencies of current services. The results are assessed and suggestions are proposed for improving on
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Transferring our knowledge and systems: tenure formalisation
    Dalrymple, K . ; Wallace, J . ; Williamson, I. P. ; ( 2005)
    Land administration systems are key infrastructure for national growth. They deliver macroeconomic growth, allow greater market integration, provide security of tenure and investments, and increase the capacity to deliver welfare. However, land administration systems supporting these activities are complicated and limited. While advanced tools and principles may be borrowed by countries building local land markets, every situation requires innovative solutions in response to the unique and dynamic land administration environment. Project designs must capture a wide range of people to land relationships and different socio-environmental circumstances. An investigation of different people to land and natural resource arrangements was conducted in a development scenario. Case study investigations took place in three rural villages in Cambodia undergoing different stages of land administration project implementation. These studies revealed a wide set of indispensable informal tenure arrangements outside the design scope for providing formal tenure security. From 1990 to now, land projects design emphasis has moved from technological to institutional criteria. Further design change is still required, especially to deliver sustainability and social development. In particular land administration systems used in development scenarios must approach formalization of land tenure with more innovative approaches. This may also require an expansion of tenure security options beyond those currently included in formal systems. Formalised Western skills may be advantageous for delivering some services, but they must be complimented by a holistic understanding of local culture and capacity.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    What will motivate local governments to share spatial information
    McDougall, K. ; Rajabifard, A. ; Williamson, I. P. ( 2005)
    Local government is a rich source of accurate and detailed spatial information which is utilised not only at the local level but increasingly at other levels of government. To build the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) at a state and national level, the role of local governments and their motivation to participate in the sharing of spatial information must be better understood. Although institutional problems still present some of the greatest challenges in building multi-jurisdictional SDIs, the technical and physical capacity of the smaller jurisdictions can impact on their ability to participate with larger and usually better resourced jurisdictions.In recent years partnerships have emerged as a useful mechanism for establishing a framework and environment conducive to data sharing. However, unless the partnership arrangements are carefully designed and managed to meet the business objectives of each partner, then it is unlikely that they will be sustainable in the longer term. This paper outlines research being conducted on the factors that contribute to the success of local-state government partnerships initiatives in Australia. The research methodology, which consists of mixed method approach utilising case studies and a qualitative survey of local government experiences in partnerships arrangements will be discussed. The case studies based in Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania focus on the arrangements to share property related information and reflect a variety of collaborative approaches. Some initial findings of the research will be presented and their possible implication to future partnership initiatives will be discussed.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Integrated land administration in Australia : the need to align ICT strategies and operations
    Bennett, Rohan ; WALLACE, JUDE ; WILLIAMSON, IAN ( 2005)
    A modern Land Administration System consists of four key functions: land tenure, land valuation, land use and land development. The integration of these functions and associated land information are essential if we are to achieve sustainability objectives and a more efficient property development process. Historically many countries have divided up their key functions; the advent of information and communication technologies [ICT] offered the possibility of integration. Current research suggests that land administration functions have resisted integration, despite technological advancements. This paper analyses such findings by considering the land administration functions of Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales. It considers each state’s spatial-mapping and registry functions at a strategic and operational level. Particular attention has been given to ICT policy and operations. The study suggests that many factor shave obstructed integration, including historical backgrounds, politics and disparate organizational cultures have all played a role. Another important factor has been the failure to align the ICT strategies and operations of the different functions: land registries have tended to view technology as supporting core operations rather than core strategy. Conversely, spatial-mapping units see ICT as fundamental to operations and strategy: not only has ICT enhanced traditional practice, but it has also allowed for the creation of new products and services. It is argued that in order to achieve further integration, Land Administration functions must align their perception and use of ICT. Shared leadership, integrated ICT infrastructures and government mandates will assist this alignment.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Creating an enabling platform for the delivery of spatial information
    Rajabifard, A. ; Binns, A. ; Williamson, I. P. ( 2005)
    The ability of single organisations or government agencies to deliver services and tools that meet user needs withinthe spatial information market is shrinking. Users now require precise spatial information in real-time about realworldobjects. This requires governments and industry to work together to create such products and services. Theproblem in Australia however, is that much of the spatial information needed to create these services resides withingovernment agencies which is often difficult for industry to access.Governments are moving forward in relation to creating policies and initiatives which open up some of thisinformation to the public. They are also creating whole-of-government initiatives such as Western Australia’sShared Land Information Platform (SLIP) and Information Queensland which aim to make governmental spatialinformation accessible across all government agencies. What is lacking however is the ability for industry to engagedirectly with these whole-of-government/cross-agency initiatives. There is a need to create an infrastructure orenabling platform linking government and private industry from which applications and services can be leveragedand value added, providing the ability to grow the private sector and spatial information industry as a whole.This paper aims to describe the issues surrounding the creation of an enabling platform linking governments spatialinformation initiatives and the private sector. It also explores the relationship between top-down research required tospecify strategic goals and vision, prioritize plans, resolve policy issues and build enabling framework and thebottom-up commercialisation required to promote various local initiatives and build application-specific andenterprise-wide databases and services. This is done through an analysis of the concept of a virtual jurisdiction,outcomes of case studies undertaken within five Australian jurisdictions on spatial data infrastructure and spatialinformation initia
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    A vision for spatially informed land administration in Australia
    Wallace, J. ; Williamson, I. P. ( 2005)
    Research to incorporate sustainable development objectives into an information communication technology (ICT)enabled land administration system (LAS) began with the task of defining an emerging vision for spatial information. Incommon with European countries which enjoy mature LAS (Switzerland, Denmark, The Netherlands and Germany),Australian LAS could benefit from the spatial enablement of land information, following the model of the spatiallyenabled geocoded national address file (GNAF). Specific instances include opportunities for more comprehensiveinformation about restrictions over land, remodelling the Torrens system into a modern land information system, andcreating national land information systems.Transition from the existing infrastructure of LAS to the new model requires selective borrowing from experiences particularly in the European Union and USAnew models of information sharingcapacity to anticipate developments in technology in location enablement and spatial identificationbuilding on Australia's capacity to create opportunities for government and the private sector in using spatialinformation in the ICT environment.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Transferring our knowledge and systems: tenure formalisation
    Dalrymple, K. ; Wallace, J. ; Williamson, I. P. ( 2005)
    Land administration systems are key infrastructure for national growth. They deliver macroeconomic growth, allow greater market integration, provide security of tenure and investments, and increase the capacity to deliver welfare. However, land administration systems supporting these activities are complicated and limited. While advanced tools and principles may be borrowed by countries building local land markets, every situation requires innovative solutions in response to the unique and dynamic land administration environment. Project designs must capture a wide range of people to land relationships and different socio-environmental circumstances. An investigation of different people to land and natural resource arrangements was conducted in a development scenario. Case study investigations took place in three rural villages in Cambodia undergoing different stages of land administration project implementation. These studies revealed a wide set of indispensable informal tenure arrangements outside the design scope for providing formal tenure security. From 1990 to now, land projects design emphasis has moved from technological to institutional criteria. Further design change is still required, especially to deliver sustainability and social development. In particular land administration systems used in development scenarios must approach formalization of land tenure with more innovative approaches. This may also require an expansion of tenure security options beyond those currently included in formal systems. Formalised Western skills may be advantageous for delivering some services, but they must be complimented by a holistic understanding of local culture and capacity.