Australian Capital Territory Land Information Centre (ACTPLA), Australia

Kick starting spatial technology during a brushfire crisis

The Challenge:

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is well known for its bushland. More than half the territory is included in nature reserves, and Canberra is often known as the “bush capital.” But in January 2003, this bushland became known for a different reason, when severe bushfires swept the territory. The combination of drought, summer heat, fire, thick bushland, and galeforce winds created an unstoppable firestorm. Damage to the ACT was extensive. Bushfires damaged around 70 percent of land in the territory, including the destruction of 491 dwellings. During this crisis, spatial data was crucial to emergency organizations for recording damage and establishing recovery planning. At the time, ACT Planning & Land Authority (ACTPLA) was just finalizing a new land information management system.

The Project Objectives:

Immediately begin using the new land information management system to record and produce data for emergency organizations in support of bushfire activities
At the end of the crisis period, fully develop the system to support the ACT’s land information management needs and support for the development of the Canberra Spatial Plan and fulfill other responsibilities

The Solution:

As part of the ACTPLA, ACTLIC has a legal responsibility to manage the ACT’s land related data. This includes everything from the boundary of each house block to the territory border. ACTLIC maintains the cadastre and other databases, providing data to clients involved with surveying, engineering, development, and government. The increasing need for GIS analysis warranted a move from the existing CAD drafting system to a sophisticated land information management system using Intergraph’s GeoMedia technology along with an Oracle database.

At the time of the bushfires, data from the old system had just been transferred, but the new system was not yet being used to record or produce mapping products. The pressure situation of the bushfires gave this process a major kick start. Ben Searle, manager of information services at ACTPLA, said, “In terms of the user environment, we were starting from scratch in an emergency situation, but it was a great training tool, and our staff were able to pick it up very quickly. We soon realized the power of the new system – its interoperability, ease of use, and powerful tools allowed us to respond in a timely manner and get information out very quickly.”

During the bushfires, ACTPLA received around 8,000 incident reports from the Fire Brigade and 2,000 from the Australian Federal Police. ACTPLA then sent out its own officers to verify bushfire damage and ensure data quality. Hard-copy maps of the damage were produced on an ongoing basis for many different agencies – in total around 1,200 to 1,400 copies of 50-60 different maps. This output played a key management role for both emergency management and also the planning and rebuilding process.

Since the bushfires, ACTPLA has developed the system further, with a particular emphasis on supporting the Canberra Spatial Plan – a document that identifies development opportunities for the next 30 years and beyond. For this activity, they have produced more than 500 plots, 7,000 files, 250 databases with thousands of features, 250 GeoMedia workspaces, and 1,500 versions of plans. Functionality of the new system includes: using GIS buffers for constraints planning – eliminating all land not suitable for future development; preparing 3D views of potential developments; “fly through” analysis at various altitudes; and a fully automated development application tool. ACTPLA is using a wide range of GeoMedia products to enable this functionality: GeoMedia (Professional) for everyday updates and analysis; GeoMedia Grid for terrain analysis; GeoMedia Parcel Manager for maintaining cadastral information; GeoMedia Objects for customized tools; and GeoMedia SMMS for metadata capabilities.

Summarizing, the system, ACTLIC’s Greg Norman said, “We are now able to provide a greater level of support to our clients, while also significantly improving efficiencies. The system is highly flexible with its ability to integrate with non-spatial systems and enable data sharing with other organizations.”

Future Plans:

The next stage is Web delivery of mapping capabilities using GeoMedia WebMap Publisher products. This functionality will be rolled out within ACTPLA, then to the ACT Government; and finally to the public. For intranet use, an initial 40 layers will be made available to provide key themes, such as the cadastre, infrastructure, topography, physical features, and census information.

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