Blog

The New Year and the New Geospatial Office

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:35:05 +0000

Kevin Sweeney - Geospatial Custodian

3 February 2012 - 1:34pm

The New Year is traditionally a time to take stock, to think back over the past year’s events and plan for what lies ahead. With that in mind I’m aware that there have been some changes to the New Zealand Geospatial Office and we enter 2012 equipped in a new way to face the challenges that always present themselves in our quest to realise the national geospatial strategy.

Since I came on board two years ago a primary focus of mine has been defining the elements of our work programme and resourcing the Geospatial Office to lead and manage it. With a few changes and inevitable bumps along the way, the completion of that work is now imminent and I’m excited to soon have a fully realised team. As we’ve added staff we’ve also reassessed and redefined some positions, including my own, to help us more effectively deliver our goals and outcomes.

As of March the full Geospatial Office will consist of:

Kevin Sweeney – Geospatial Custodian
Anita Balakrishna – Manager Geospatial and Open Data
Keitha Booth – Programme Leader Open Government Data and Information
Alison Stringer (Secondment) – Programme Advisor Open Government Data and Information
Mary Sue Severn – Director CRCSI NZ
<To Be Announced> – SDI/Technical Leader
Richard Murcott – Geospatial Standards Leader
Michael Judd – Fundamental Data Leader
Kathryn Salm – Geospatial Capability Leader
Geoff O’Malley – Senior Analyst
John Forne – Analyst
Nicky Clarke – Geospatial Coordinator
Steve Bensberg (Christchurch) – Local Government Liaison

As I look at that list I’m struck by how far we’ve come. Two short years ago the Geospatial Office consisted of myself, Geoff O’Malley, John Forne and working part-time, Steve Bensberg. Beyond significantly increasing our numbers we’ve also better defined our work programme and mapped out a means of delivering it.

Whilst the list contains names that are familiar to many, there are new additions and as mentioned, some changes to responsibilities, particularly at the management level.

My role as Custodian has changed, and has a narrower focus. All staff management and operational administration, including development and implementation of work plans, budgets, etc. is now the responsibility of Anita in her new role as Manager. Within the LINZ organisational structure, Anita and I sit as co-managers, both reporting to the GM for Strategic Development and Support.

This has been done to allow me to focus more exclusively on strategic planning, thought leadership and external engagement. My role was always meant to be the “public face” of the Geospatial Office and my hope is that this new arrangement will help me better fulfill that obligation.

In this sense I will be a primary point of contact for those key to the realisation of our national geospatial strategy, including iwi, the commercial sector and the wider international geospatial community.

Another significant change has been the addition of Keitha and Alison, administering the Open Government Data and Information (OGDI) work programme, under Anita’s management. This was done deliberately to foster better alignment of the OGDI and NZGO work programmes and to leverage the advantages that such alignment will generate.

Lastly, there have been some new additions to the team. Michael Judd will also be joining us next month to assume the role of Fundamental Data Leader. Michael will be relocating from Auckland where he has most recently been employed as the Geospatial Data Manager for the NZ Defence Force. He brings a wealth of experience with data management in both the NZ public and private sector, and is well versed in the issues associated with New Zealand’s fundamental geospatial data.

We also have an SDI/Technical Leader joining us soon to coordinate our national SDI work. Details regarding this appointment are still in the works, but we anticipate placement within the next two months.

Even with these resources in place we are still a relatively small group, faced with a very big job, and operating in a much tighter fiscal environment than was the case two years ago.

The challenge for us now more than ever is focussing on the right things, and concentrating our efforts on those outcomes that will deliver the greatest benefits for New Zealand. We are all aware that this is no easy task and as such we are committed to staying well connected and engaged with the wider community to inform our thinking.

I’m excited to see what we can accomplish in 2012 to deliver the national geospatial strategy and to support the outcomes of the Open Government Data and Information initiative, and I’d be keen to hear your thoughts on how we might best achieve this.

Sprint Workshops to help up NZ GISP-AP numbers

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:08:55 +0000

Dr Kathryn Salm

30 January 2012 - 3:08pm

Slogging through the process of professional certification solo can sometimes feel like a marathon effort. I’ve been collaborating with the NZ SSSI representatives to pull together these workshops, initially in Wellington, which have been designed to help you sprint through preparing your GIS-AP certification portfolio.

GISP-AP (GIS Professional - Asia-Pacific Certification) is software-independent professional certification for GIS practitioners.

The original GISP certification is widely recognised in the USA, and the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI) have franchised the certification for the Asia Pacific region, which ensures the GISP-AP has equivalent recognition internationally as the original.

Getting certified is a good way to build your reputation and gain recognition for your work as a geospatial professional here in New Zealand and overseas. You apply by submitting a portfolio which includes details of education, work experience and contribution to the GIS community/profession.

We’re lining the workshops up so that participants will be all ready for the April submission round. The workshops start in February and will be guided by two existing GISP-APs, who are also Chair and Vice Chair for SSSI NZ - Chris Weir and Karl Majorhazi.

All workshops will be held on Level 7 at LINZ, at our new address at 155 The Terrace, Wellington. Dates for the workshops are as follows:

Introductory Seminar Wednesday 15th February. 12-12.45pm
What is GISP-AP? Why get it? Are you eligible? What does it take? The workshop series process.

Sprint Workshop 1 Thursday 8th March. 12-2pm
Application and Education

Sprint Workshop 2 Thursday 29th March. 12- 2pm
Work History and Experience.

Sprint Workshop 3 Thursday 19th April. 12-2pm
Contributions and final preparation

The workshops are free, however you will need to take into account the cost of your GISP-AP membership application. This cost varies depending on whether or not you are a SSSI member (AU$165 for SSSI members, AU$737 for non-members). It is more cost-effective to apply as a SSSI member – Chris and Karl can give you more information on joining.

Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available, and you are welcome to bring your own lunch to eat as well

If you are interested in attending the introductory seminar, please contact me on the details below.

Dr Kathryn Salm - Geospatial Capability Leader
New Zealand Geospatial Office
Land Information New Zealand

DDI: 64 (0)4 4956209
ksalm@linz.govt.nz

ANZLIC Conference in Canberra

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:01:03 +0000

Huia Pacey

26 January 2012 - 1:17pm

Just before the pre-xmas frenzy last year, I attended the November Australia New Zealand Land Information Council (ANZLIC) conference in Canberra as a sponsored ANZLIC delegate. The conference theme was “Positioning Australia” so it was unsurprising that the datasets on display were all focussed on the Australian population, land and water resources, and the participating agencies/vendors were fully oriented to the Australian market. It was an interesting beast for a first timer.

At roughly 28 times the size of New Zealand, the quantity of data needed to satisfy the Australian spatial sector is huge. The buzz around the unveiling of Australia’s 1 second (30m) DEM was therefore understandable, as was the interest in the different state’s imagery and land and water updates. The work to generate state specific or site specific biophysical data for their natural resources was a pleasure to hear about (Tasmania is worth watching).

As expected, the range of discussions appeared to correlate to discussion themes here in NZ - creating worthwhile data, opening up existing and future datasets, efficiencies and potential joint venture arrangements. The dreaded rules and creation of metadata had some eyes rolling (except for the officials of course) but the common experience of trying to wrench data from ‘overly protective’ data holders in some Australian Government Agencies generated the best facial reactions.

I was interested in how the aboriginal communities and the Australian agencies were engaging in the spatial sector but, apart from the welcoming speech by a Ngunnawai Kuia and the obligatory reciprocal acknowledgement by the Australian senator, there was no visibility at all during the conference except for one of the end sessions. Everyone I met was very nice but the majority of people I talked to had no idea how to engage with their indigenous community which is perplexing given the Aboriginal peoples have the longest, continuous, temporal and spatial cultural relationship to the land than any other indigenous peoples. Only one Australian government delegate was able to talk to me about any indigenous engagement. It was not surprising that, in his opinion, capability and capacity were the limiting factors for aboriginal people to engage in the spatial industry.

A session on the last day clarified the aboriginal position for me. During Jim Dentrinos’ presentation on “Indigenous Locations – authoritative Naming and Geo Location”, he made a comment that as the Queensland authorities had absolutely no idea where their indigenous communities were located during the recent Queensland floods, these communities couldn’t be warned or assisted during the natural disaster. You would think this kind of statement would generate a collective gasp or even ripple of unease from the Australians in the audience but the response was very muted. At just over 1% of the Australian population, it would appear that the aboriginal community is still some way off their engagement radar. Given a comment from a LINZ person placing Māori as merely an “interest group”, I guess indigenous engagement is something that we also need to look at here in NZ.

Overall impression of the conference was that it was a valuable one to attend in order to gauge our neighbour’s drivers behind national data creation and management, and to see how ANZLIC is working. The multi stream presentations created the usual dilemma (which ones to attend!). It was good to see a few open source presentations. Colin’s address to the crowd was one of the better. It was interesting, informative and cheeky (the Rugby World Cup comment prompted a smile from everyone in my vicinity even if they weren’t rugby fans). There were several positive comments in the audience about NZ’s drive to share data and their contribution to ANZLIC (e.g. the adoption of LINZ’s National Data themes) but it was a shame that there was no NZ nomination for the Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards. I thought the new LINZ Data System (LDS) would have been an ideal candidate for an award. Maybe next year.

New Zealand & Australia's collaboration on marine research, observations and data management

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:42:07 +0000

Jochen Schmidt

8 December 2011 - 1:17pm

New Zealand and Australia have signed this week an historic agreement, aimed at improving country-to-country collaboration on marine research, observations and data management. This agreement sets the framework for improved and seamless inter-agency work in the marine space across the Tasman.

A New Zealand delegation (including representatives of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), GNS Science, the University of Otago and the Ministry of Science and Innovation) met with Australian counterparts at a marine observation symposium in Hobart over the last few days to identify specific collaborative research opportunities for inclusion into a bilateral work programme.

There were a large number of common interests identified in ocean observation, ocean modelling, and in marine data management during the two-day workshop.

A more coordinated approach in terms of observation gear deployment was identified as a key action point. We will talk to each other more across the Tasman sea to make sure our observation efforts are coordinated and meet the needs of current and future generations.

An exciting point to note is that NIWA and IMOS, the Integrated Marine Observing System, agreed on establishing a New Zealand ocean data node compatible with the Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN, portal.aodn.org.au) which will enable New Zealand to serve large amounts of ocean data into the international community using open standards.

We have started using complementary technologies and architectures on both sides of the Tasman. This groundwork has been done – and through our cooperation we will make ocean data streams compatible, interoperable, and accessible to the science and user community.

Collecting LiDAR bathymetry data

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:17:19 +0000

Stuart Caie

8 December 2011 - 8:17am

In September, the LINZ Hydrography team released a Request for Proposals (RFP) to collect LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) bathymetry data for the Wellington Harbour and Abel Tasman areas.

The idea for LINZ contracting the collection of some bathymetric LiDAR data came about for a number of reasons; to measure the performance of the latest Airborne Laser Bathymetry (ALB) systems; to collect data in Wellington Harbour as part of the Common Dataset for the Shallow Survey conference (SS2012) www.shallowsurvey2012.org in Feb; and to see if we could combine gravity measurements with LiDAR on one platform to save costs.

The LINZ geodetic team wanted to fly some gravity over Christchurch as a pilot scheme to improving the accuracy of the national geoid model and so we worked together to develop the RFP for the ‘Multi-Sensor Airborne Platform Project’ (M-SAP).

When preparing the RFP it became clear that the two systems have different requirements for data collection and when we started the evaluation it was obviously not that simple to provide 2 systems on 1 platform - 2 into 1 does not go.... easily!

It is possible, as one of the providers found out, but a bit cramped onboard the plane. None the less, they thanked us for giving them a challenge! However, with the additional cost, time and differing acquisition requirements, it was not to be so we had to revert to plan A – fly LiDAR only

Fugro LADS (www.fugrolads.com) were awarded the LiDAR work and are due to start in mid December, based in Nelson.The LINZ Hydrography team have a meeting with them this week to kick off the project.

The survey of Wellington Harbour will form part of the Common Dataset for the SS2012 conference, whilst the survey of the Abel Tasman coast should give us a good dataset in the nearshore environment. Both surveys will allow us to assess the system and do a comparison for target detection of known underwater hazards to determine position, least depth and extent - which have been previously surveyed to hydro charting standards with traditional sonar - single beam/side scan sonar and multibeam systems - from waterborne craft.

LINZ last used LiDAR technology back in the late '90's, so this will give us an up-to-date understanding and appreciation of the performance of the latest system which we can use to plan our future hydrographic survey programme. All going well, we can potentially use LiDAR to achieve coverage of large areas and aid investigation of hazards/channels, then use surface craft with acoustics to survey the critical areas to the highest standards for safety of navigation charting.

The LiDAR data will be available to delegates of the Shallow Survey conference and anybody else - they just need to pay for the 1Tb hard drive. Ideally this would be served up through the LINZ Data Service but due to the large file sizes, this isn’t an option at present. So if you want to see the comparisons between waterborne and airborne bathymetry, then come along to the Shallow Survey conference in Feb, the Early Bird rego has just been extended!

Stuart Caie
Senior Hydrographic Surveyor
LINZ

NZGO Vacancy – Fundamental Data Leader

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:49:08 +0000

Ben White

15 November 2011 (All day)

Land Information New Zealand’s (LINZ’s) purpose is to maintain and build confidence in property rights in land and geographic information as well as encourage land markets to develop and mature. Our work supports activities as diverse as buying a house, navigating the seas and sending emergency services to the right place.

LINZ's New Zealand Geospatial Office is continuing its exciting period of development and growth, and there are now several work streams in motion within its industry-wide work programme.

The Fundamental Data Leader provides leadership and guidance across the NZ geospatial industry to facilitate the rationalisation of geospatial datasets and will lead efforts to develop a framework for custodianship of fundamental datasets.

This is your opportunity to lead and simplify process improvements. You will understand how geospatial information is procured, maintained and used in a Government context to create a common purpose and serve the broader user community. You will also develop an effective process for compiling fundamental datasets across the full range of custodial situations.

Key to your success will be your natural influencing and facilitating skills as you will need to get people on board and be able to easily move across sectors and make connections. You will be liaising and supporting stakeholders, which will include Geospatial vendors and other Government agencies. You will also work collaboratively with LINZ data managers to support the LINZ role as the Geospatial Centre of Excellence.

You will also demonstrate a strong understanding of data management principles, including a working knowledge of data modelling and have the ability to clearly articulate the issues associated with data custodianship. Experience with the implementation of spatial data infrastructures is essential.

Please forward a CV and cover letter outlining your skills and experience for this role.

Please ensure the position title and reference number are in the subject line.

Applications are to be sent to opportunities@linz.govt.nz by 5pm Tuesday 6 December 2011.

For further information on this role please contact Kevin Sweeney, Geospatial Custodian on 04 498 3521.

Ben White
Geospatial Programme Director
New Zealand Geospatial Office

SDI Cookbook Chapter 6 – Government and Industry, moving forward.

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:45:36 +0000

Kevin Sweeney

10 November 2011 (All day)

Last month we ticked off another big milestone for the New Zealand SDI Cookbook, by publishing Chapter 6.

This chapter is the product of responses from the spatial industry to a request for information we issued back in July. The material in this chapter lists application providers, along with information about how their applications conform to open geospatial standards.

It’s been fantastic to see the level of engagement from the spatial industry, and the volume of responses that we received certainly exceeded our expectations.

One of the biggest advantages of chapter 6 is that it helps us identify those that are already interested in helping build a national SDI framework here in NZ. Some of these players are international; however we also have some excellent representation from smaller local industry players.

Chapter 6 helps to make tangible the often made point that an SDI cannot be built solely by Government, or solely by industry for that matter.

It requires everyone to be collaborating, for example – funding and policy from a government perspective, infrastructure that is built in partnership between government and industry, industry providing tools and applications for people to use.

There is also the critical step of ensuring people are out there writing the business cases to build SDI into everything that we do. We hope that through taking a collaborative approach to developing the cookbook, we are contributing to making this happen.

Guidance supporting the national SDI will continue to evolve through a community effort. Realisation of this approach includes implementation of feedback on the development and publication of the SDI Cookbook and chapter 6 RFI responses. This is in addition to the valuable information and perspectives we receive from all sectors through our regular engagement.

Kevin Sweeney

Geospatial Custodian
New Zealand Geospatial Office

Enabling GIS in Schools

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 03:01:29 +0000

Kathryn Salm and Claire Thurlow

4 October 2011 (All day)

For many years New Zealand high schools have struggled to introduce GIS to their students. Feedback we’ve received has indicated that restricted computer access, budget constraints, and minimal access to comprehensive New Zealand centric lesson plans using GIS have all contributed to this struggle.

A joint effort between the New Zealand Geospatial Office and Eagle Technology has produced a prototype application, currently known as the Educational GIS Web Portal, that we envision will address these issues. A Working Group is supporting the Portal initiative and covers all sectors of the spatial community including representation from the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI).

Through the Educational GIS Web Portal we’re looking to present teachers with a web based GIS application that utilises the government broadband initiative, and brings pre-package lessons using GIS to the classroom to allow students to meet the requirements of the new Spatial Analysis Achievement Standards. There are two lessons incorporated within the Portal pilot - an introduction lesson which allows students to plan their summer holiday and a national achievement compliant lesson showcasing the Rugby World Cup.

We’re currently testing the Education GIS Web Portal Prototype. Five schools ranging the width and breath of New Zealand, both urban and rural, are using the portal to present geospatial concepts to their geography classrooms. Testing is due to be completed in the next couple of months, and all participating teachers have been asked to provide feedback on the portal, including usability, through an online form on the Eagle Technology Website.

Once testing is completed the Working Group will review the feedback and determine a way forward for the Portal. Ideally we would like to link this resource into the Ministry of Educations TKI site and see it utilised as a permanent spatial information and concepts teaching tool within New Zealand classrooms. We are also keen to have industry continue to be involved in the development of ideas for lesson plans that reflect how GIS is used to solve interesting real-world problems.

If you would like to find out more about the web portal, please contact either Claire Thurlow at Eagle Technology (claire_thurlow@eagle.co.nz) or Kathryn Salm at the New Zealand Geospatial Office (ksalm@linz.govt.nz).

Workshopping an Approach to National Addressing

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:36:14 +0000

Kevin Sweeney

8 September 2011 (All day)

Last week the New Zealand Geospatial Office (NZGO) sponsored two workshops to surface some ideas and frame up thinking about a national approach to authoritative addresses.

Andy Coote, Director of ConsultingWhere and a consultant working with the NZGO, facilitated the two sessions, titled “An Interoperability Approach for Addressing: Shaping a Framework for New Zealand” and “The Business Case for Addressing: Understanding the National Address User Community.” The first session included a collection of key address data stakeholders, while the second event involved attendees from organisations representing end users of address data.

‘Address’ has been identified as a fundamental reference data theme by the Geospatial Steering Committee, meaning it is acknowledged as particularly significant for the country as a whole.

The list of applications reliant on addresses is extensive, including everything from mail and parcel delivery to emergency services response, health monitoring to customer marketing. As anyone who has worked on projects involving address records can attest, addresses can also be one of the most challenging data types to manage effectively and New Zealand is no exception in this regard. There are currently numerous sources of address data which can potentially span multiple address types, including allocated, physical and postal delivery.

Workshop one: An Interoperability Approach for Addressing: Shaping a Framework for New Zealand

In this workshop Andy presented some lessons learned from his experience with national addressing initiatives in the UK and across Europe (part of INSPIRE). It has been demonstrated in these cases and others that a national approach designed to help pertinent datasets interoperate using common standards is the most likely to result in a successful authoritative source. But it is also likely to be a long-term process, requiring a highly collaborative approach, changes to existing attitudes and a focus on manageable goals and quick wins (“the best way to eat an elephant,” as Andy suggested).

Attendees discussed the addressing situation here in New Zealand, first establishing that there is in fact a problem to be solved, then reviewing how best to proceed. Agreement was reached that the list of key stakeholders needs to be more clearly defined and that work to standardise the addresses provided by local authorities could represent an effective quick win. Participants also agreed that research to map the current NZ address data supply chain, which the NZGO has submitted to CRCSI as a project proposal, would provide a useful common reference frame for further work in this area.

Workshop two: The Business Case for Addressing: Understanding the National Address User Community

To start off this workshop, Andy outlined the session objectives, with a focus on the importance of business cases for geospatial initiatives. The participants, representing New Zealand address users from a range of public, private and academic organisations, then voted on the top four use cases for consideration and business case development.

Two groups were formed to brainstorm these four use cases, with one group discussing postal delivery and emergency services, while the second group took on local authority address development and disaster management. For each case the groups provided the background, opportunities and potential benefits from effective use of address data. While benefits were often stated in general terms, Andy was keen to have participants translate those benefits into dollars, an important component of an effective business case.

These group discussions proved a success, surfacing interesting ideas and surprising facts associated with these particular use cases. All agreed that the approach was a worthwhile exercise for exploring additional use cases for address data.

Both of these workshops represented ‘first steps’ for progressing work on the address data theme, and I consider them a good start to what is likely to be a significant journey to an authoritative national address.

The opportunity to bring together representatives from many different organisations, across various sectors, perspectives and experience, and have them all focused on a common goal was exciting.

My hope is that we as a group can nurture the momentum generated by these sessions and keep this important initiative moving forward.

As a first step the NZGO, through its fundamental dataset work programme and in conjunction with the Geospatial Steering Committee, can help facilitate an address stakeholder group to explore options, develop relevant business cases and move us as a country down that path.

Do you have any thoughts about a national address approach? Feel you or your organisation should be part of a stakeholder group? Please contact me at: ksweeney@linz.govt.nz, or Jill Barclay, Fundamental Data Leader, at jbarclay@linz.govt.nz.

Kevin

National soils data now available online

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:22:04 +0000

David Medyckyj-Scott, Landcare Research

30 August 2011 (All day)

Researchers have today unveiled a new online tool to make it easier and more effective for land managers, business, scientists and the public to better understand the soils that underpin New Zealand’s economy, land use and ecology.

S-map Online is a web browser service which provides easy access to information on the soils likely to be found at a location of interest. It’s based on “Google Earth” style navigation to make it easy to search, view and query, and allows a user to:

explore interactive maps of soil properties such as soil drainage and available water,
learn about the soil in their backyard or paddock,
view detailed information about soil classes or attributes,
create custom PDF soil maps for printing, and
for specific locations, download soil factsheets which provide more detailed knowledge of soil properties and information relevant to a variety of potential uses.

S-map Online is based on a digital soil spatial information system that is being populated with data to provide consistent and comprehensive national soil data layers to support applications at local, and regional to national scales. It improves on previous soil mapping, fills gaps with new mapping, and upgrades the associated soil property information to meet a new national standard.

Landcare Research’s Informatics Team Manager David Medyckyj-Scott says the launch of S-map Online is a “further step towards meeting the New Zealand Governments Declaration on Open and Transparent Government [1] and the requirement that data and information should be open and readily available”.

“A year ago today Landcare Research launched the LRIS portal, which gave those working in regional and central government, in industry, in research and in education access to environment data held by Landcare Research. Aimed at the professional data user, uptake of the service has been high and it is proving to be a great success. However, we felt there was a need for services which make data available in a much more user friendly and informative way and without the need to work with the data directly. So we are delighted to now be able to announce this new soils information service. ”

As well as access to detail soils information, the S-map Online web service has excellent, high quality base maps including maps based on LINZ topographic data. These allow the user to not only locate an area of interest with a high degree of accuracy but also provide a geographic context for the soils data.

Although S-map coverage is not yet complete, there is sufficient coverage to make the service a useful resource for many people. Work continues to extend S-map to the Environment Waikato and Environment Canterbury territorial areas, the soft-rock hill country in the central North Island and parts of Northland, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Wairarapa, Golden Bay and the West Coast.

“We also have plans to further develop S-map Online so users can develop their soil knowledge and ultimately make better informed and more reliable land use decisions and we’ll keep users informed of these developments,” Dr Medyckyj-Scott says.

Note: During the initial period of operation, access to S-map Online outside of office hours is not guaranteed.

[1] The Declaration on Open and Transparent Government was approved by Cabinet on 8 August 2011.

Sourced from Scoop News