EDITION 3 JUNE 2011 Online ISSN:1837-994X locationmatters A point of reference for Tasmanian land information locationmatters A point of reference for Tasmanian land information THIS ISSUE Historic street maps Emergency management Locational intelligence CLAC on track Client Services Service Tasmania Information and Land Services Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park and Cradle Mountain Day Walk Maps are available for purchase from Service Tasmania shops, TASMAP resellers and agents, and online at www.tasmap.tas.gov.au locationmatters is produced by the Information and Land Services Division of the Tasmanian Department Message from of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE). This newsletter aims to provide professionals and the general public with Kate Kent... interesting articles and news about land information in Tasmania. In this edition, we take a closer look at We encourage you to provide feedback or In the some of the connections between this ideas for future issues and hope you take past Division and Tasmania’s emergency service advantage of this opportunity to keep in year organisations to illustrate how spatial touch. Comments can be emailed to we’ve seen many information is being used for the benefit of [email protected] extreme weather the Tasmanian community. An electronic version of this publication events and a can be found at: devastating range of natural disasters in communities around www.dpipwe.tas.gov.au/locationmatters Kate Kent Australia and in New Zealand. Floods, General Manager cyclones and severe storms caused great © Copyright State of Tasmania, 2011 Information and Land Services Division personal and financial hardship in many parts of Queensland, New South Wales, Department of Primary Industries, Victoria and, to a lesser extent, in northern Parks, Water and Environment CONTENTS Tasmania. Historic street maps 3 The emergency management experience Emergency management 4 associated with many of these natural disasters graphically illustrates the critical Locational intelligence 5 importance of spatial information in Have your say… CLAC on track 6 response, rescue, recovery and restoration Client Services 7 activities. There is increasing recognition of This newsletter is designed, written, edited the need to automate, integrate, manage and produced in-house by the Information Service Tasmania 7 and display relevant information about and Land Services Division of the News in Brief 8 emergency events in a spatial context – Department of Primary Industries, Parks, where it can be rapidly combined, analysed Water and Environment. Cover image and accessed through a ‘map’ view. Our aim is to keep clients and members Historic map index for James Sprent’s book The use of spatial information allows of the community informed about new of survey plans from the 1840s (see article on page 3). important new analyses and views of developments and progress with existing historical and current data to determine projects, as well as introduce you to staff the likely and actual extent of the event and the work they do. and reliably predict who and what is at Please take a few minutes to tell us risk. Displaying data spatially communicates what you think by completing the short concepts and scenarios quickly and questionnaire at efficiently in an environment where speed www.dpipwe.tas.gov.au/locationmatters and accuracy are crucial. or email your comments to [email protected] Your feedback will help to ensure that we can continue to provide you with timely, relevant information in the most cost- effective format. This publication has been printed on 50% post consumer waste and 50% FSC certified fibre. 3 Historic street maps – James Sprent’s legacy lives online In February 1841 had been measured. He was appointed The digitisation of Sprent’s Book was surveyor James Sprent undertook an Surveyor-General of Tasmania in 1857 undertaken as part of a comprehensive extensive and large scale survey of the after labouring under two predecessors of archiving project. Plan scanning greater part of Hobart Town, producing somewhat dubious ability. commenced in 2004. Later this year, an impressive set of over seventy plans No one could have foretold that, 170 years Sprent’s original works and other historic in minute detail, right down to individual on, Sprent’s work would still be in use and survey records will be formally handed buildings. These plans were later bound published in digital format. over to the Tasmanian Archive and into a large volume, commonly referred to Heritage Office. as Sprent’s Book. As recently as 2009, James Sprent’s digital mosaic can be viewed on More than a century and a half later, Sprent’s Sprent’s historic plans were LISTmap by selecting Other Imagery in the Book has been scanned, georeferenced and used in the Coroner’s Imagery layer category. integrated into one seamless, digital mosaic, inquiry into Hobart’s Myer which can be displayed as a layer within Robert Higgins a GIS or desktop mapping environment. store fire. Manager - Archiving Project Many of the buildings depicted in the 1840s are still in existence today and Sprent’s work was so accurate that no distortion was needed to fit his plans to today’s property boundary data. The son of a Scottish publisher, James Sprent arrived in the colony of Van Diemen’s Land in 1830, a time of increasing disputes between landholders, mainly due to the piecemeal way in which land Right: One of Sprent’s original plans of Hobart Town in the 1840s. The dark ink stain on the original plan coincidentally marks part of the site of the Myer store destroyed by fire in September 2007. Below: The actual Troughton & Simms theodolite used by James Sprent (Surveyor-General of Tasmania 1857-59) still resides in the Office of the Surveyor-General in Hobart. 4 Picture perfect emergency management a critical role for geographic information systems In a world increasingly beset by natural and man-made disasters, geographic information systems (GIS)1 are proving to be valuable tools for decision- makers. No other technology allows for the visualisation of an emergency or disaster situation as effectively as GIS. By capturing the accurate physical location of an event in a GIS environment – and aligning other relevant features, events, conditions or threats with that geography – emergency managers are armed with ‘real time’ information about the situation at hand. Tasmania’s emergency management Tasmania Fire Service Incident Controller Gerald Crawford using spatial capabilities for operational decision-making during the organisations coordinate responses to Wayatinah Bushfire in February 2010. incidents through collaboration with multiple government departments at GIS is highly effective in all four phases this year, the north of the State was Federal, State and local levels. The use of the emergency management cycle: experiencing consistent rainfall and the of GIS helps to reveal a more complete planning, preparedness, response and Bureau of Meteorology forecast that higher picture for decision-making across many recovery. While the first two phases than normal rainfall events would continue audiences and at different management revolve around tasks prior to an incident across northern Tasmania for some time. levels. and the latter two focus on post-incident In preparation, ES-GIS developed a number efforts, this is a cyclic process, where what At the heart of this work is the Emergency of maps for high-level briefings. These happens after an incident influences and Services GIS Unit (ES-GIS) in the showed the extent of potential inundation informs future planning and preparation. Department of Primary Industries, Parks, in Inveresk and Invermay based on forecast Water and Environment (DPIPWE). The Planning rainfall and a failure of the existing levee unit was established in 2004 as part of a system. The maps provided decision- Emergency management planning involves joint initiative between Tasmania Police makers with an understanding of what mapping and analysing both natural and and DPIPWE. The major objectives of the could occur and allowed them to prepare technological hazards, modelling potential initiative were – and still are – the capture, for possible scenarios. GIS was also used impacts and developing mitigation integration, maintenance and delivery of to list and analyse community facilities and strategies. To understand the vulnerability critical emergency management data layers, infrastructure at risk. and the provision of 24/7 on-call GIS and of a community in specific situations, desktop mapping support to emergency emergency managers need access to a Training is an integral part of preparing management organisations during major wide range of spatial information based on for an emergency incident. Activities such incidents. The unit also provides GIS and key datasets such as critical infrastructure, as national counter-terrorism exercises desktop mapping support for internal roads and property information. provide opportunities to identify spatial departmental requirements, including Parks Preparedness information gaps and test the system’s and Wildlife Service fire management operational effectiveness. This phase generally involves activities and emergency response activities for Response biosecurity and oil spill incidents. undertaken to prepare for an imminent disaster. Through the effective use of GIS, Of all the stages