Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 26
  • Item
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    A registry based governance model for spatial data infrastructures
    Box, Paul ; Atkinson, Rob ; RAJABIFARD, ABBAS ( 2010)
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Development of an interoperable tool to facilitate spatial data integration in the context of SDI
    MOHAMMADI, HOSSEIN ; RAJABIFARD, ABBAS ; Williamson, Ian P. (Taylor & Francis, 2010)
    The integration of multisource heterogeneous spatial data is one of the major challenges for many spatial data users. To facilitate multisource spatial data integration, many initiatives including federated databases, feature manipulation engines (FMEs), ontology-driven data integration and spatial mediators have been proposed. The major aim of these initiatives is to harmonize data sets and establish interoperability between different data sources. On the contrary, spatial data integration and interoperability is not a pure technical exercise, and there are other nontechnical issues including institutional, policy, legal and social issues involved. Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) framework aims to better address the technical and nontechnical issues and facilitate data integration. The SDIs aim to provide a holistic platform for users to interact with spatial data through technical and nontechnical tools. This article aims to discuss the complexity of the challenges associated with data integration and propose a tool that facilitates data harmonization through the assessment of multisource spatial data sets against many measures. The measures represent harmonization criteria and are defined based on the requirement of the respective jurisdiction. Information on technical and nontechnical characteristics of spatial data sets is extracted to form metadata and actual data. Then the tool evaluates the characteristics against measures and identifies the items of inconsistency. The tool also proposes available manipulation tools or guidelines to overcome inconsistencies among data sets. The tool can assist practitioners and organizations to avoid the time-consuming and costly process of validating data sets for effective data integration.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    A better way to manage land information
    Tambuwala, Nilofer ; BENNETT, ROHAN ; RAJABIFARD, ABBAS (The Intermedia Group, 2010)
    Australia’s Federal Government has no constitutional authority over land administration. Each state and territory has its own system and, to date, this system has served the nation well. Each system is reflected in the historic, independent pattern where each jurisdiction computerises its own processes and operates according to its own timetable, needs, reporting functions, customer service design and other imperatives. However, the country’s capacity to meet increasingly national issues – such as management of the macro economy, a national property market, climate change response, disaster management, national business coordination and national security– is problematic. Seamless information about landownership, and its use, value and development is essential to the strategic planning of capital cities. Processes such as levying capital gains tax, allocating drought relief, and managing crime and terrorism all require broad strategic planning, as do the development of early warning systems for emergencies and climate change initiatives. As a consequence, national priorities that rely on information about land are faced with the technical, policy and institutional barriers that come with integrating data from multiple state-based sources. The solution is a national land information infrastructure.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Critical issues in global geographic information management - with a detailed focused on data integration and interoperability of systems and data
    RAJABIFARD, ABBAS ( 2010)
    The GSDI Association continues its support for the United Nations for taking the initiative on this critical global geographic information issue; and is willing to contribute to new arrangements to improve global geographic information management. The role of the GSDI Association, in essence, is to facilitate better global outcomes through utilisation of geographic information and spatial data infrastructures (SDIs). This role directly complements the proposal to establish a United Nations Committee on Global Geographic Information Management (UNCGGIM). The GSDI Association's view of the changes now taking place in the geographic information world and these changes exemplify convergence of technologies and disciplines. These changes need to be influenced where appropriate, and leveraged, by the global geographic information community, particularly by the United Nations. This paper presents some views related to the “critical issues in global geographic information management” and in particular a response to the following issues: - Governance: is global governance relevant and necessary? - Interoperability of systems and data - Data integration and layering, and - Capacity building and technology transfer In responding to these issues, the paper however provides a more detailed discussions on “interoperability of systems and data” and “data integration” in particular the technical and non-technical issues and heterogeneity associated with multi-sourced spatial data integration in the context of SDI.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Implementing spatially enabled government (SEG) concept in Indonesian local government, challenges and opportunities
    SUTANTA, HERI ; RAJABIFARD, ABBAS ; Aditya, Trias (Aura, 2010)
    Most government decisions and action at national and local levels have a spatial component. Local government activities with spatial components include, but are not limited to, spatial planning, land management, taxation, and the issue of building and site permits. A framework for governing spatially related activities needs to be formulated. An emerging concept of Spatially Enabled Government (SEG) is currently being developed, refined and implemented in many countries. SEG will increase efficiency, transparency and accountability of government activities. This paper will discuss the SEG concept, its prospects and challenges when implemented in the context of Indonesian local government. Local government in this paper refers only to district (kabupaten/kota) level. The following data were used: survey on local government’s website and questionnaire. Of the 479 districts in Indonesia, official websites of 442 districts established after 2006 were surveyed. Questionnaires were sent out to 71 districts, with 34 responses being received. The questionnaire covered areas of organization, human resources and spatial data infrastructures (SDIs). It was designed to investigate the existing capacity and understanding of local government spatial governance, specifically at the local planning agency. Website surveys revealed that local government had limited interest in exploiting the virtually unlimited potential of internet for spatially-related government activities. SDI, as an enabling platform for data sharing and exchange among government agencies, has not been considered important. Comprehensive policies on spatially-related government programmes were limited. Finding from the questionnaires indicates that funding and qualification of human resources were the main responsible factors for this situation. Local governments have limited staffs with expertise in spatial data handling. Some recommendations to overcome the challenges and impediments are presented. Although there are challenges and impediments, SEG may still be implemented in local government provided some necessary conditions are met. Recent central government initiatives on national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) and telecommunication infrastructure, which will be implemented in the near future, are essential to speed up the process of creating better spatial data governance in local government.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Towards an Assessment Framework for Spatially Enabled Government
    HOLLAND, P ; Rajabifard, AR ; Williamson, IPW ; Rajabifard, A ; Crompvoets, J ; Kalantari, M ; Kok, B (Leuven University Press, 2010)
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Automatic spatial metadata enrichment: reducing metadata creation burden through spatial folksonomies
    Kalantari, Mohsen ; OLFAT, HAMED ; RAJABIFARD, ABBAS (Leuven University Press, 2010)
    Metadata plays a key role in facilitating access to up-to-date spatial information and contributes to the finding and delivering of high quality spatial information services to users. In particular, metadata is an important element in functioning and facilitating spatial data infrastructure (SDI) initiatives. With huge amount of spatial information being generated, a spatial application must be sufficiently flexible to extract and update spatial metadata automatically. Automatic spatial metadata generation framework includes three fundamental but complementary streams; automatic creation, automatic update and automatic enrichment of spatial metadata. This paper explores the automatic metadata enrichment stream based on the tagging and folksonomy concepts. The paper argues how folksonomies help bringing the vocabulary of spatial data users into play and using them hand in hand with those sometimes mysterious terms supplied by experts in metadata records. The paper then builds on the tagging and folksonomy concepts and proposes a conceptual model to employ them for spatial metadata enrichment. The paper finally discusses advantages and disadvantages of this approach against formal type of organizing spatial metadata.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Exploring the key areas of spatial metadata automation research in Australia
    OLFAT, HAMED ; Kalantari, Mohsen ; RAJABIFARD, ABBAS ; Williamson, Ian P. ; Pettit, Christopher ; Williams, Stephen (Leuven University Press, 2010)
    Improving the spatial metadata management process to facilitate data discovery, access and retrieval through an SDI platform has been the goal of a number of organizations at different jurisdictional levels in Australia. A current linkage research project titled “Spatial Metadata Automation” is being conducted at the University of Melbourne in conjunction with some industry partners. This research project aims to explore different approaches for automating spatial metadata so that the process of creating and updating spatial metadata – where feasible – becomes automatic. As part of the project an online questionnaire was designed and distributed within the major organizations dealing with spatial data in Australia to assess the users’ needs regarding metadata automation and also the current status of the activities in metadata creation and updating. This paper presents the results of the assessment process and explores the key areas of spatial metadata automation research in Australia. It also reviews some of the more important initiatives regarding spatial metadata in this country and explains the characteristics and framework of the current research. The paper then discusses the structure of the questionnaire and the results of the responses analysis. Finally, the findings, future needs and research questions are presented.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    ONTOLOGY BASED SDI TO FACILITATE SPATIALLY ENABLED SOCIETY
    Sadeghi-Niaraki, A ; Rajabifard, A ; Kim, K ; Seo, J (GSDI 12, 2010)