Colac Otway Shire web GIS launch

8 August 2009

Web geographic information systems (GIS) can deliver decision useful information in an intuitive, cost effective and timely manner. The Colac Otway Shire is the first municipality to join the University of Ballarat to establish and launch a Web-GIS portal. As a result Colac residents and visitors can more easily access spatial information about their region.

South West Knowledge Hub launch event

The Colac Otway Shire Web GIS was launched on 7 August 2009 at the Colac Otway Performing Arts & Cultural Centre. Special guests included Gayle Tierney MP and Darren Cheeseman MP.

Colac Otway Web GIS

This project is made up of two parts. The first, funded by the State Government through the MAV Broadband Innovation Fund is a web-based Geographic Information System shared by South Western Councils for the purpose of keeping ratepayers informed on matters with a spatial component.

It is called the South West Knowledge Hub (SWKH) and has been developed by the Centre for eCommerce and Communications. It is called the SWKH because it is envisaged that more Councils and an ever increasing number of datasets will be included over time. Specifically in Colac Otway Shire's case the information is concerned with local points of interest. Where is the closest school? Where is the closest hospital? etc. The other councils are Corangamite Shire and Moyne Shire.

The Colac Otway components comprises of a number of useful datasets including a database of landslides which, among other things, serves to alert ratepayers of planning constraints when building near landslides. The landslide database is the second part of the project and is funded federally through the Natural Disaster Mitigation Programme. This fund is administered through the Department of Justice in Victoria. The landslide database has been compiled and published with the help of the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority.

The South West Knowledge Hub

Lack of access to regional data places the sustainability of rural communities at risk. In the South West Region of Victoria organisations including local governments and community organisations currently lack the infrastructure and shared service models to support them in delivering decision useful information in an intuitive and cost effective manner. This project aims to fix that deficiency for the South West in three specific ways.

Develop and launch the South West Knowledge Hub
- A web-based facility incorporating an innovative combination of knowledge management and information dissemination tools
Establish a Regional GIS facility
- A shared infrastructure which will support custodians of regional data in contributing their GIS data to a regional information pool for dissemination via the South West Regional Knowledge Hub
Secure technical support and training
- Skill partner organisations and other regional organisations and individuals for sharing and innovation.

This project delivers high quality and cost effective services to individuals involved in community and regional development, primary industries and the environment. It will extend local skills and expertise and provide a model for other regional organisations and councils which demonstrates how the effective use of broadband can deliver higher quality, more cost effective services.

Providing better access to regional data

Place-based development approaches generate new leadership and participation opportunities for communities. They also generate new demands for local information and for more effective integration with whole of region, state and national initiatives. This project will leverage emerging technologies to effectively collate and communicate information on local environmental conditions, current areas of intervention and support needs. Multiple benefits will be generated including better meeting the information needs of regional communities, government and landholders. The Regional GIS facility will initially support the delivery of datasets which include:

Landslide data
Council specific data (Points of Interest and Waste Collection Routes)
Groundwater bore monitoring data
Salinity data
Ortho-photos

Significant public benefits will be generated through the provision of access to this data.

Improving service delivery and productivity

Regional organisations including small regional and rural councils face significant barriers to using ICT to improve service delivery and to achieve productivity improvements. The shared services model will improve access to and the quality and consistency of regional services. It will also support continual service improvements and effective distribution of responsibilities for ongoing maintenance of local knowledge resources and data.

Strengthening regional partnerships

Better use of existing knowledge and a more systematic approach to innovation and learning is a key to building communities that are diverse, resilient, anticipatory, flexible, responsive and opportunistic. Individually none of the participant organisations could have delivered the information or quality of service goals of this project. As result of this project regional organisations will:

Share ICT systems at a regional level and develop new skills and expertise.

Better achieve the goal of getting the right knowledge, information and data to the right people at the right time
Avoid repeating mistakes, extend promising ideas and innovate more.
Progressively build a knowledge base to support better decision making and resource allocations
Strengthen the region's ability to put knowledge, information and data into action in ways that generate new benefits of the region
Better communicate priorities, strengths, interventions and opportunities for natural resource management in the South West Region

This project had its origins in the South West Sustainable Settlements pilot project run by DSE.

Corangamite Landslide Database

The Colac Otway Shire attracted funding from the Natural Disaster Mitigation Program (NDMP) for the Corangamite Landslide Mapping Project. Previous landslide data for the Corangamite region was provided as polygons, lines and points with limited data attached, sourced from GIS layers. Key drivers for this project include limiting inappropriate development in landslide prone areas and bushfire mitigation by the use of improved modelling.

The new landslide database provides far more extensive capabilities, through the ability to link spatial elements in the GIS to photographs, reports and geotechnical data, in a similar structure to the groundwater bore monitoring and research database. Project objectives achieved with NDMP funding associated with construction of a landslide database included:

Designing and building a landslide database
Populating the database with existing landslide data for the Corangamite region
Publishing data via the UoB interoperative web-based GIS

The established services provide the capability to extend and exchange landslide data through interoperable links with Geoscience Australia Australian Landslide Database once relevant confirmations, protocols and permissions are in place.

The landslide database serves Colac Otway Shire interests by providing information to planning applicants. Most development in the Colac Otway Shire must comply with the constraints of the Erosion Management Overlay in the Shire Planning Scheme. Having this database means the CoS can now direct the engineers consulting to these applicants to an authoritative source of landslide information so that we are not having to construct databases to provide this information in response to every application.