Land Information Coordination Committee

Tasmania, Australia

Tasmanian Spatial Data Infrastructure Guidelines

November 2003

1. Purpose

The Tasmanian Spatial Data Infrastructure (TSDI) Guidelines has been established by the Land Information Coordination Committee (LICC) to provide a set of principles to guide the ongoing development of the TSDI by state government agencies, government business enterprises and local government

2. Background

The TSDI is defined as,

The people, policies and technologies necessary to enable the use of spatially referenced data through all levels of government, the private and non-profit sectors and academia (and ultimately the community).

In preparing these guidelines the LICC recognises that the TSDI is continuing to evolve. Whilst the LIST continues to form the basis of the TSDI it is now recognised that a number of recently developed applications, including TIGERS and IRIS, also form part of the TSDI.

It is considered that the TSDI will eventually consist of a network of distribution services, service providers and data storage facilities managed by government agencies, private sector companies, community organisations and other parts of the spatial information industry.

The LICC believes that adoption of the following principles will ensure that government digital spatial data of a recognised quality is accessible and deliverable in the most efficient and effective way possible.

3. Scope

These Guidelines apply to State Government Agencies, Local Government and Government Business Enterprises that have an interest in delivering digital spatial data over the internet.

4. Principles

The following principles are based on principles contained in the ANZLIC document, ‘The Internet Framework Technical Architecture’, January 2003 and are developed to ensure a common understanding of, and hopefully a consensus for the broad technical requirements of the TSDI and guide the development of the architecture. Implementation of the TSDI will require spatial data custodians and service providers to commit to these principles.

• The TSDI will support seamless access to spatial data and information services by anyone, anywhere.

• Development of the TSDI will be driven by the ability of the network to deliver improvements in the cost effective and efficient delivery of data and information services to a broad range of users from all data distributors, regardless of their size.

• Custodians will retain specified rights and responsibilities for their data accessed through the TSDI.

• Ensure privacy and security of data and protection of property rights.

• Use of a common architecture, adopting open systems technologies and relevant standards, to facilitate interoperability and to guide implementation and use of the TSDI.

4.2 Architecture

• The TSDI consists of a network of distribution services, service providers and data storage facilities maintained by government agencies, private sector companies, academia, community organisations and other parts of the spatial information industry.

• The Internet is used as the principal delivery mechanism for spatial data and related services.

• Services support the discovery, viewing and access to spatial data.

• Interoperability of search and access mechanisms are supported across multiple spatial data distributors regardless of the size of their data holdings.

• Spatial data and service providers have the flexibility to support one or many views to their data, while controlling access to their data holdings in accordance with accepted intellectual property, access policies and licence agreements.

4.3 Coordination and Communication

• Use and build on existing coordination arrangements and developments to foster cooperation and participation to maximise sharing and minimise duplication of effort.

• Guide and advance developments through open and timely communication between all stakeholders.

• Actively consult all user groups to ensure the TSDI meets their needs.

• Seek collaborative arrangements with industry to develop and promote the creation and use of the Internet component of the TSDI.

• Actively promote the benefits of implementing the architecture, including social and economic importance, of providing and maintaining services to allow users to find, view and access spatial data.

4.4 Standards and Protocols

• Adopt internationally and nationally agreed standards and protocols while building on existing developments, to link infrastructure and spatial data delivery services.

• Contribute to the enhancement of existing and/or development of new international/national standards and protocols that will that will further enhance the discovery and obtaining of spatial data.

• Support the adoption of minimum technical and conduct standards to encourage participation in the TSDI.

• Promote relevant standards, guidelines and protocols to encourage participation in advancing the TSDI.

4.5 Systems Development

• Adopt technologies that minimise barriers to data publishing and access.

• Develop open public interfaces that allow interoperability between individual components of the TSDI and comply with relevant standards.

• Abide by minimum basic capabilities required to connect to specific services in the TSDI. (Service providers who choose to support optional capabilities need to indicate what additional capabilities they are supporting.)

4.6 Quality Control and Monitoring

Service and data custodians are responsible for ensuring the reliability of their components including:

• Conformance testing

• Performance monitoring

• Node status reporting

• Data and metadata quality

4.7 Industry Development

As well as facilitating better access to spatial data sources and services, it is important to note that the TSDI also supports industry development and medium to long term planning certainty. A wide range of roles for the private sector are possible, including:

• Creation of services.

• Integration of existing services.

• Creation of specific market focused Value Added Services.

• Provision of hardware and software.

• Potential management and maintenance of Infrastructure Services (as a form of Shared Services provider).

• General consulting.

5. Implementation

• These Guidelines will be distributed to the major stakeholders of the TSDI.

• Compliance with the Guidelines by participants in the TSDI will be assessed on a periodical basis.

6. Review

These Guidelines are subject to review at the request of the Land Information Coordination Committee.

This page has been produced by the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment. Questions concerning its content may be directed to the Department on +61 3 6233 2183, by mail to GPO Box 44, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7001, or by email to Michael.Varney@dpiwe.tas.gov.au

This page was last modified on 12 March 2004. The URL for this page is http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/licc/LICC_Spatial_Data_Infrastructure_Guidelines.htm

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