Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemSDI governance bridging the gap between people and geospatial resources( 2009)Organisational arrangements have long been recognised as a critical enabler and fundamental component of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). More recently, the term “governance” has become increasingly used to refer to aspects of institutional frameworks that support SDI. However, given the polysemous nature of the term and the evolving nature of approaches to implementing SDI, it not clear exactly what is meant by the term “SDI governance” and thus the scope, nature and challenges of governance are not well understood. Through an exploration of concepts and model of governance in a variety of contexts, a conceptual model of SDI governance is being developed. An investigation of practical realities of governance in four Australian SDI initiatives has been used to inform the development of this model. This paper provides an overview of the concepts of governance, presents some key findings from the Australian SDI cases studies; and describes an initial conceptual model of governance.
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ItemSpatial data integration: a necessity for spatially enabling government(University of Melbourne, The Centre for SDIs and Land Administration, 2007)Introduction Most governmental decisions involve a spatial component (Williamson and Wallace, 2006), therefore informative decision making within governments is highly reliant upon multi-sourced spatial data. The ability to spatially enable governments through the use of integrated multi-source spatial data at different governmental levels makes governmental decisions incredibly efficient (Mitchell, 2006b), though governments rarely produce all the data required for their business. Rather, they obtain and integrate data from different sources. However, the diversity of data producers hinders effective spatial data integration. There are many technical and non-technical obstacles in the integration of multi-sourced spatial data and this is one of the major problems in sharing and using spatial data among government organizations. From a technical perspective, spatial data may differ semantically, syntactically and structurally. Institutional, social, policy and legal issues also hinder data integration. In order to effectively overcome these issues, a holistic framework is required to manage and address the issues. SDIs aim to facilitate the integration of multi-source spatial data by providing a holistic framework in which spatial data stakeholders (governments, private sector, etc) interact with spatial data effectively through technological components. There are inconsistencies in the various data within an SDI which lead to data inconsistency and hinder data integration. These inconsistencies should be managed through the SDI framework. However, at the moment, the SDI framework does not deal with these inconsistencies effectively. Hence, we need to identify and map the inconsistencies and develop tools and guidelines within the framework of an SDI to manage them. This will then make it easier for data to be integrated across and within government organisations.
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ItemA strategy framework to facilitate spatially enabled Victoria( 2009)Spatial Information is at a critical turning point in its development. More people are using it for a wider range of purposes, including social networking; technology is changing the way we communicate with each other; there are new ways of thinking about ‘location’; and big corporate players are entering the market and are starting to drive standards. At the same time, all levels of government, business and the community face significant challenges in producing and using products and services in environmentally and socially sustainable ways. Spatial information has an integral part to play in developing solutions to these challenges. But this cannot be achieved without a clear strategy and a framework that harnesses everyone’s skills and expertise. Victoria is fast being recognised as a leader in many aspects of State SDI development in Australia and internationally. The Victorian Spatial Council – which is the peak body that provides a coordinated approach to policy and development and management of spatial information – has recently painted the emerging landscape for spatial information in Victoria. Through the Victorian Spatial Information Strategy 2008-2010 it highlights some of the changes occurring in spatial information and technology and the key challenges they pose, and sets the broad themes for facilitating the whole spatial information community’s participation in that landscape. VSIS is a basis for delivering spatially enabled Victoria. At the same time, it considers that spatial information should be seen as part of the wider information resource created by and available to society. It presents a challenging agenda and the strategic framework it sets out lays the foundation for fulfilling the promises that are held out by the developments it describes. This paper aims to present and discuss VSIS, its development process and its role in connecting all levels of government, the private sector, utilities, academia, the professions and a wider community from a spatial data perspective. The paper starts with a discussion on the importance of having a spatial information framework in the context of spatially enabled society and then discusses the central role VSIS plays in facilitating the spatially enabled vision in Victoria. The paper then highlights a range of activities and processes to be undertaken across all disciplines and sectors to facilitate framework development. This includes aspects of design, creation, governance and processes involved in developing an enabling platform, and the overall relations between different challenges to facilitate spatial data activities. The results and lessons learned from the development of the strategy can be used and applied in other jurisdictions, at both national and global levels.
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ItemAn initial formal model for a Spatial Data Infrastructure( 2008)The Commission on Spatial Data Standards of the International Cartographic Association (ICA) is working on defining formal models and technical characteristics of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). To date, this work has been restricted to the Enterprise and Information Viewpoints from the ISO Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP) standard. The Commission has developed models for these two viewpoints. These models describe how the different parts of an SDI fit together in the viewpoints in question. These models should be seen as a contribution towards the overall model of the SDI and its technical characteristics. During the model development process, the roles of the different Actors in an SDI in the Enterprise and Information Viewpoints have also been identified in Use Case diagrams of an SDI. All the models have been developed using the Unified Modeling Language(UML).