GIS in SEQ 2021 ‐ more than maps

Abstract

The views of the suthors of this paper are not necessarily the views of the Department, the Office, SEQ 2021 or its stakeholders. Since the authoring of this paper the SEQ 2021 unit has been within a new Queensland Government policy commitment, the Office of Urban Management. SEQ 2021 is the three‐year regional planning process for South East Queensland (SEQ), which is jointly funded by the South East Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils and the Queensland State Government. The aim of the program is to develop a new regional plan by late‐2004, which will guide the actions of all levels of Government, Community and Industry to 2026 to achieve a sustainable future for the region. This includes balancing the natural, built, social and economic environments so that they can be enjoyed by future generations. The use of spatial information has been an integral part of SEQ regional planning since 1990 ‐ providing a valuable resource for the planning process. In the current round of SEQ regional planning, the SEQ 2021 GIS Unit provides a service, which facilitates, coordinates and leads the use of spatial information to increase SEQ 2021 stakeholder understanding of the region's issues and, as a result, build the capacity and confidence of stakeholders to participate in the planning process. The Unit has undertaken an innovative program of information creation and dissemination to achieve these outcomes. This program has three main themes; the first is making existing spatial information increasingly available to stakeholders, for example, the SEQ Social Atlas, SEQ Regional Interests Mapping Series and special purpose mapping. The second is promoting spatial information to stakeholders through planning information seminars and expos. The last theme is facilitating the exchange of spatial data between State, Regional and Local Government Agencies. These approaches of increasing spatial information availability, marketing and promotion, and sharing have raised awareness in the amount and applicability of location‐based information to support SEQ regional planning. As a result, SEQ 2021 stakeholders are becoming better informed. However, a full exploitation of the power of location‐based information has not yet been realized in SEQ 2021 due to data licensing arrangements, which regulate SEQ 2021's use of spatial information in the public arena. If these were to be relaxed, there is the potential to further enhance informed regional decision‐making by the wider SEQ community.