The growth of the spatial industry in Australia and New Zealand is underpinned by policies, guidelines and standards that are continually being maintained to meet the emerging requirements of government, industry and the public.
The Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying & Mapping (ICSM), a standing committee of ANZLIC – the Spatial Information Council, is the primary surveying and mapping coordinating body for Australia & New Zealand.
This paper details some of the work undertaken by ICSM, successes and problems encountered.
This work includes:
the development of a standard for electronic recording and transfer of cadastral survey plan information;
the development of National Topographic Information Coordination Initiative (NTICI) which is a national collaborative agreement between government agencies, designed to maximise cooperation in topographic data collection, management and distribution;
the development of WEB based packages to improve the public’s understanding of spatial issues, including a Geographic Names teaching package and a Fundamentals of Mapping package;
maintenance of important reference material including the GDA Technical Manual, the Standards and Practice for Control Surveys, and the Australian Tides Manual;
creation of the Australian and New Zealand Rural and Urban Addressing Standard, for consistent and easily understood addressing in Australia & New Zealand;
development of a Harmonised Data Model and Framework for the fundamental spatial datasets comprising the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI); and
development of a WEB based service whereby information about the latest topographic maps can be sourced in one place – regardless of who produced the map.