Welcome to the Centre
The centre;
- Provides a focus for research in Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration by building on ongoing research relationships and creating new links through extended collaboration both nationally and internationally.
- Undertakes original world-wide research in land policy, land management, land information, spatial data, technical applications and other areas.
- Supports spatial data developments and land administration particuarly in the Asia-Pacific region.
Research Focus
The Centre researches all aspects of -
- Spatially enabling government and society,
- Designing and developing SDIs,
- Cadastral system,
- land management and market,
- Building the next generation of property data systems,
- Managing the integration of land and marine administration,
- Advancing metadata documentation,
particularly to support sustainable development and effective markets. Research highlights include development of concepts of the cadastre, a digital cadastral database, diffusion of geographic systems and "toolboxes" for land administration.
Achievements
The Department of Geomatics through the centre has been undertaking research in Land Administration Systems (LAS), and Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI), for decades, particularly to pioneer ways of supporting sustainability of land uses and alleviation of poverty.
Land Administration Systems (LAS)
Land administration is the process of administering the complex rights, restrictions, responsibilities and (increasingly) risks related to land and its use. Historically land administration was focused on State Land Titles offices. Growing demands of land markets and government policy initiatives stimulated evolution of LAS into statewide land information systems concerned with all private and public rights, restrictions and responsibilities including land use and land valuation components. In Victoria the State's land administration system is administered through the Department of Sustainability and Environment, a department with a longstanding and close working relationship throught the centre to the Department of Geomatics.
Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI)
Spatial Data Infrastructures are an evolving concept providing the spatial or geographic base underpinning a state's or a country's economic, environmental and social activities. Originally this was provided by a statewide mapping system. Now SDIs involve a complex digital environment including a wide range of spatial data bases and are concerned with standards, institutional structures and technologies including the World Wide Web (WWW) and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). Spatial Data Infrastructures underpin an information society and enable a society to become spatially enabled. They are an essential part of eGovernment strategies, and key to provision of timely and relevant information about land to the public, business and government.
Formative activities include -
- The UN/FIG Bogor Declaration on Cadastral Reform in 1996.
- The International Workshop and Conference on Cadastral Infrastructures to Support Sustainable Development in 1999. The Workshop was supported by and attracted participation from State and Federal governments in Australia , five United Nations agencies including the Director of Sustainable Development in New York , as well as the World Bank.
- The UN/FIG Bathurst Declaration on Land Administration for Sustainable Development in 1999. The Declaration was presented to and endorsed by United Nations conferences in New York and Malaysia .
Increased interest in spatial data and land administration infrastructures at State and Federal levels in Australia and internationally resulted in the establishment of the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructure and Land Administration in the Department of Geomatics in 2001.
Our research includes best practices in land administration, the SDI hierarchy, capacity building, marine environment spatial data and administration, decision support systems, evolution of land markets and tenure systems, and servicing of the complex commodities retailed in modern property markets.
Education and Workshop Activities
The Centre's research activities support the undergraduate and graduate teaching programs in the Department of Geomatics. Major projects involve Workshops to obtain critical peer review of research, attract interest in outputs, and encourage collaboration and initiatives in government and private sectors.
Center organized and run different specialist training programs , seminar as required
- SDI Governance workshop to explore the SDI Governance as a part of current research activity, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 2008.
- Spatial Enabled workshop(Land Administration Infrastructure), Korea, 2007.
- The workshop on Spatial Data Infrastructures development and Implementation for national coordinating agencies for Surveys and Mapping (Bakosurtanal), 2007.
- UN supported Workshop on Data Integration, Thailand, 2006.
- International Workshop on Marine Administration-the spatial dimension (as part of Marine SDI and Marine Cadastre research), Malaysia, 2004.
- A Short Course on Spatial Data Infrastructures designed for people in the Asia-Pacific Region was run in November 2003.
- International Workshop on Cadastral Template, Japan, 2003.
- An International Symposium on Spatial Data Infrastructures run on 19-20 November was sponsored by State and Federal Governments, university of Melbourne,Melbourne, Australia 2001.