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Spatial information

Spatial Information has a very bright future

Tue, 19/08/2008 - 12:06 — Warwick Watkins

Warwick WatkinsThe "institutional" barriers and structural failures have hampered the wider understanding and adoption of spatial information across the public and private sectors, and that is one of the greatest challenges we need to address.

Gary Nairn, as a Surveyor and a former federal Minister with a passion for Spatial Information (SI), is well placed to make the observations about the future of SI [see his blog "A glimpse of the future", 29 July 2008].

There is no object on, above or beneath the Earth's surface that does not have, or could not be contained and referenced within a static or dynamic set of coordinates that enable all objects to be spatially placed and identified in relation to each other.

SI has come of age in recent years as people from a range of different disciplines and walks of life in the public and private sectors, academic institutions and the community generally have embraced the power and importance of SI to inform and achieve the social, economic and environmental outcomes sought by society.

A glimpse of the future

Tue, 29/07/2008 - 11:16 — Gary Nairn

Gary NairnMerging technologies unleashes the true power of each technology.

A couple of months ago I was lucky enough to take a paddle on a pristine lake on the far south coast of New South Wales, and while it didn't look like it, I was hard at work.

You see my kayak was not only spatially enabled, it was linked to the net. It was a new wireless web-technology kayak.

In-between paddles I was on-line booking my flight from Canberra to Wellington, checking my emails and buying and selling some shares (although I'm not sure if I should be buying or selling these days).

The web-kayak was also monitoring the tides and lake current patterns and linked to a GPS which indicated how many paddles in what direction would give me the optimum course to get across the lake to the river we were about to explore. The system was also taking into account underlying 3D topographical maps of the lake to highlight water depths, submerged rocks, sandbars, etc.

This high tech unit also featured a fin-mounted fish finder sensor that would alert a web kayaker of any approaching sharks if it were out in the ocean rather than this peaceful lake.

Creating Spatial Opportunities

Tue, 24/06/2008 - 13:26 — Gary Nairn

Gary Nairn

When it comes to the development of spatial information systems and technology, the role of government is crucial, as in most cases government holds the primary data upon which the industry will ultimately grow.

Spatial information and the industry associated with it is something I have been passionate about for a long time. And even today that makes me a little unusual. When I was first elected to Parliament, very few of my colleagues had any real understanding of what spatial information was, let alone any notion that it had the potential to grow into the $12.6 billion dollar industry it is today.

To the majority of parliamentarians and senior government officials a map was something you either had in your atlas at home or in the glove box of the car.

And that is where the spatial information industry was stuck for a while, at least amongst the decision makers in parliament.

What is a Spatially Enabled Government?

Tue, 15/07/2008 - 11:18 — Gary Nairn

Gary NairnImagine a spatially enabled tax office that would have real-time information on owners, land identity, geo-coded address, interests and transactions as they occur - or a spatially enabled Centrelink which could minimise fraud and overpayments...

In my last blog I covered the process by which industry and government worked together to raise the profile and the potential of the Spatial Information Industry in Australia.

The second area I want to cover more specifically is spatial information and government and particularly the importance of achieving spatially enabled government.

I would strongly argue that this isn't rocket science.

Interestingly when I first started to talk about a spatially enabled government, one of my former parliamentary colleagues thought I was on a band wagon to increase Australia's involvement in space discovery. I was actually very interested in the work of our astronomers and particularly the tracking of space junk being done by a very innovative company in my then electorate, Electro Optics Systems. But I explained in speaking of all things spatial, it was with a "t" not "c".