Client Success Story

Partnership between Geoscience Australia and Spatial Vision to develop AMSIS (AUSTRALIAN MARINE SPATIAL INFORMATION SYSTEM)

Bill Hirst, Project Leader, Marine Spatial Information and Boundary Advice, Geoscience Australia

Geoscience Australia plays a strong role in the government sectors of industry, resources and tourism. It produces high quality geoscientific information for both the government and the public, helping individuals and organizations make critical decisions about issues involving resource management, environment management and tourism. Key priorities for Geoscience Australia in 2005 and 2006 have been the acquisition and interpretation of marine survey data. Towards this goal, and in partnership with Spatial Vision as well as other private or public entities, GA has developed the comprehensive and diverse web-based mapping tool known as AMSIS-Australian Marine Spatial Information System. At the time of AMSIS’s launching, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Resources, the Honorable Bob Baldwin, M.P., commented that the new web-based mapping tool will facilitate a richer understanding, management and exploration of Australia's marine world. AMSIS provides access to a wealth of marine data including jurisdictional boundaries (for example, the Limit of Territorial Sea Marine Boundary), shipping tracks, petroleum leases, minerals offshore, infrastructures offshore, Commonwealth fisheries and World-heritage listed areas.

Relying on data drawn directly from GA’s Spatial Data Servers, AMSIS also uses the Internet Mapping Framework (IMF-OWS 1.3), produced by Canadian company Moxi Media. This Framework allows geospatial information system (GIS) applications based on the Open GIS Standards, to be integrated with AMSIS, thereby enabling marine planners, marine scientists, offshore managers and other users access to current marine survey data.

Spatial Vision worked closely with GA officers to develop the technical specifications and a protocol for assessing the performance and technology options for AMSIS. Ian Miller conducted the initial technology assessment and solution design, including the open standards and open source software integration into Geoscience Australia’s infrastructure. Ben Johnson managed the project, undertaking much of the application development, implementation and documentation.

About Bill Hirst:

Bill Hirst is responsible for AMSIS and oversees the provision of marine related data in response to a constant stream of requests. Bill said that GA expects that AMSIS will provide very real benefit to government, the public and to commercial enterprises. AMSIS will enable many organizations to self-serve their mapping needs directly. To evaluate this goal, Geoscience Australia will conduct workshops for the purpose of evaluating the AMSIS project outcomes.

Copyright © Spatial Vision, Thursday, 27-July-2006