Abstract

Spatially Enabling Government (SEG) - or towards eGovernment Why ‘place’ provides the solution


Prof. Ian Williamson
EDepartment of Geomatics
Melbourne School of Engineering
University of Melbourne, Australia


Spatial information offers modern governments many opportunities to improve the way they undertake their activities and deliver their services. Unfortunately the journey to achieve this through spatially enabled government (SEG) is difficult but for many is inevitable.

This presentation outlines a vision for SEG that involves establishing an enabling infrastructure to facilitate use of place or location to organise information about activities of people and businesses, and about government actions, decisions and polices. Once the infrastructure is built, spatial enablement allows government information and services, business transactions and community activities to be linked to places or locations in a ubiquitous manner.

Given the potential of new technologies, use of place or location will facilitate the evaluation and analysis of both spatial and non-spatial relationships between people, business transactions and government.

Most governments already have considerable infrastructure and administrative systems for better management of land and resources. Basic information creating processes are cadastral surveying that identifies land; digital cadastral databases that provide spatial integrity and unique land parcel identification; registering land that supports simple land trading (buying, selling, mortgaging and leasing land); and geographic information systems (GIS) that provide mapping and resource information. For modern governments at all stages of development, one question is how best to integrate these processes, especially to offer them in an Internet enabled eGovernment environment.

Twenty years ago, each process and collection of information, was distinct and separate. Two changes in the world at large challenged this silo approach. First, thanks to improvements in technology, the infrastructure available to support modern land and resource management now spans three distinct environments: the natural, the built and the virtual environments. Second, the pressures on senior administrators created by increased populations, environmental degradation, water scarcity and climate change, require governments to have much more accurate and comprehensive information than ever before.

One commodity in particular - land information - has the ability to transform the way government and private sector organisations do business. The eLand administration concept as part of eGovernment initiatives is now moving to a wider use of spatially enabled land information that is integrated, interactive and available on the Internet thereby facilitating SEG.

Specifically the presentation discusses the concept of SEG and its role in supporting sustainable development, the central role of property or the cadastre in SEG, international trends and key strategies to achieve SEG.