The Collective has been coordinating the purchase of spatial imagery and training of regional NRM body staff and on-ground land managers to enhance the delivery of projects and programs.

The Spatial Imagery Capture Project was developed from an identified need for imagery capture coordination, capacity building amongst the regional NRM bodies and general information coordination between the regional bodies, stakeholders and government agencies.

Spot5 imagery with license uplift provides improved technology for regional bodies, landmanagers and whole of government use. Regional Geographical Information System (GIS) staff believes the positional accuracy is excellent and has exceeded expectations. Natural colour mosaics have been delivered to regional bodies, who are distributing this imagery to landholders as requests are received.

Thirteen NRM regional bodies have participated in Global Positioning System (GPS) and GIS training provided by the Qld Regional Groups Collective. Across the state 310 people have been trained in GPS and 236 people trained in GIS since the project commenced in 2006.

Standards for capturing property infrastructure have been developed and sent out to GIS users and stakeholders for feedback. These standards have been in use by QMDC and Condamine for three years and have expanded to suit current needs for state-wide implementation. A GIS tool has been developed to assist with this process and has been released for trial and comment. The process is designed to complement the Queensland Governments’ OnePlan initiative.

The state-wide imagery capture process has allowed cost savings for regional NRM bodies. These savings have so far been reinvested as value added products for the following regional bodies: Queensland Murray Darling Commission; Terrain NRM; Condamine Alliance; Fitzroy Basin Assocation; and SEQ Catchments.

A strategic plan for Regional NRM Body Information Management and GIS activities recently developed is being used to identify the future needs of the regional NRM bodies and ways to address them.

Quotes from attendees of the training include:- “This has been the best training I have ever attended”, “I enjoyed the program and got a good start to using GPS as a property management tool.Everyone involved was extremely helpful.” “Great GPS day, very relevant to my indigenous site recordings.”

Queensland Spatial Excellence Award Winners

Regional NRM across Queensland has received recognition for its advanced spatial imagery applications to the ground level. The Spatial Imagery Capture Project, led by the Collective’s spatial imagery team, won big at the Queensland Spatial Excellence Awards night held at MovieWorld, Friday 18th July. Not only did they win the People and Community category, by surprise they also won the prestigious JM (Mac) Serisier Award for Overall Excellence.

The project is now automatically entered into the national finals to be held at the Asia Pacific Spatial Information Conference in Canberra in November. The team has also been invited to deliver papers on their methodology to Australian and international spatial scientists at the conference.

This project is a joint effort across the dedicated spatial imagery staff of the Collective core team and the regional bodies.

QSSI Award received by Lee Blacklock (the Collective), Michael Digby (NG) and Kristian Smith (FBA)

Project coverage in international SPOT magazine

Read more about the spatial imagery project in the international SPOT magazine, under the title “Mapping Land Use in Australia” www.spotimage.fr/web/en/353-spot-magazine.php

NSW crosses the border for a mapping boost

The multiple award winning Queensland Spatial Imagery Capture project is now attracting interest from New South Wales for their well received training services to land managers; pictured here Angela Baker and Leith Hawkins (Namoi CMA), Lee Blacklock (the Collective).

Spatial imagery staff from the Namoi Catchment Management Authority (CMA) travelled to Brisbane from Gunnedah in late July to advance their skills in using Geographical Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies. Led by the Queensland Regional NRM Groups Collective (the Collective), the training was extended to provide an interstate service for the first time.

The successes of the spatial imagery coordination and services provided to land managers in Queensland are looked upon as role model cases for interstate learning. Leith Hawkins, Information Management Officer from Namoi CMA was interested to see how NSW could benefit from Queensland’s experience.

“We don’t have an active GIS network in NSW like Queensland, so this training has been good for getting feedback on what we do and learning from others’ experiences. This training is a stand out point for us in our work and has given us more practical information than in other courses”.

Mr Hawkins was also interested in others in NSW to benefit from this knowledge. “This is a good opportunity to see how this information could be applied in NSW”, Mr Hawkins said.

The Collective coordinates the purchase of the largest single spatial imagery capture in Australia and provides training to regional NRM body staff and on-ground land managers to enhance the delivery of projects and programs.

The Spatial Imagery Capture Project was developed from an identified need for imagery capture coordination, capacity building amongst Queensland’s regional bodies and general information coordination between the regional bodies, stakeholders and government agencies.

Standards

A team made up of regional body GIS Officers have been working hard on developing a list of standards to assist in capturing data at the property level. A number of regional bodies have been using their own developed standards for a number of years, however this is the first time everyone has put all these together to develop one standard.

The first stage of this process has been completed where a list of codes and feature names have been developed. The next stage is to produce a description for each of these names to establish common terminology. Associated symbols will be developed, along with a geodatabase and tools to help the capture process.

At the Statewide workshop in February 2008, all regional GIS staff agreed to use the standards produced by this group in future property projects.

Queensland Spatial Imagery Brochure

Download the Queensland Spatial Imagery brochure:

Spatial Data and Capacity Building across the Queensland Regions (pdf 665KB) 

Applications of SPOT-5 Imagery

The purpose of this document is to inform current and future users of the imagery to its usefulness in a variety of applications. The imagery will not do everything for everyone but was intended to fulfil the needs of Queensland NRM regional bodies. In saying this, the Project Steering Team were aware of a number of potential benefactors of the imagery and purchased the Whole of Government license as well as a license for property owners working with the regional bodies. Queensland state government departments such as NR&W, EPA and DPI are using the imagery to support many operational activities. There have been a number of unforseen benefits which have resulted from this purchase and no doubt, many more will become evident in time.

Download full document here: Applications of SPOT-5 Imagery (pdf 2.45MB)

Queensland Spatial Imagery Capture Project Poster

Download the poster for more information about the Qld Spatial Imagery Capture Project (pdf 479KB)

Queensland Spatial Imagery Communication Strategy

This communication strategy is to provide Queensland NRM spatial imagery user organisations, primarily regional bodies, a common approach for communications at a state level and a range of shared options for use at a regional level. This strategy is a resource for GIS user organisations to use as they wish.

The strategy is available to download here:

Qld Spatial Imagery Communication Strategy (pdf 831KB)

GPS/GIS Training Locations

The attached map below shows where the RGC's spatial imagery team have provided GPS and GIS training to regional NRM bodies and community partners across Queensland. If you have any particular requests please contact Lee Blacklock (see contact below).

 GIS/GPS Training Locations Map 2007-08 (pdf 344KB)

Contact

Lee Blacklock, Spatial Imagery Coordinator
Phone: 0427 223 774
Email: lblacklock@regionalgroupscollective.com.au