Expert Group Meeting on Incorporating Sustainable Development Objectives into ICT Enabled Land Administration Systems

Melbourne, Australia, 9-11 November 2005

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Organisers and keynote speakers of the conference: Daniel Steudler (left), Stig Enemark, Holger Magel, Ian Williamson and Paul van der Molen.

The Expert Group Meeting was held as a result of a research project analyzing Land Administration Systems in Europe and Australia.

The project is conducted by Prof. Ian Williamson and Ms. Jude Wallace, Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructure and Land Administration at University of Melbourne. Prof. Stig Enemark, Vice-President of FIG, has acted as the European research counterpart. The project began in 2004 and requires development of a national vision for land administration in Australia in the context of emerging information and communication technologies. Perspectives of a sustainable future were identified during research into international and national literature, and in case studies in the research partner jurisdictions: Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and The Netherlands in Europe and New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria in Australia. The case studies were chosen to examine why modern European democracies are better at using land administration systems to support sustainability than their Australian equivalents.

The international expert group meeting was conducted to examine how European countries achieve this integration and to identify lessons that could be applied in Australia. The discussions were open, wide ranging and fruitful. Europe was represented by Prof. Holger Magel, President of FIG (Germany), Prof. Paul van der Molen, Chair of FIG Com 7 (the Netherlands, Prof. Stig Enemark, Vice-President of FIG (Denmark), and Dr. Daniel Steudler (Switzerland). Australia was represented by a number of key persons, such as Mr. Warwick Watkins (NSW), Mr. Peter Holland (Geoscience Australia), Mr. Grahame Searle (WA), Mr. John Rickard (Victoria) and Mr. Graeme Rush (Queensland).

A range of papers were presented and discussed. A key issue was to analyse the current land management paradigm and develop a possible vision for the future that could better reflect the need for spatial enabled land administration functions focusing on not only sustainable development and governance but also on delivering services to the business and citizens. The meeting was concluded by a half day Open Forum where the results were presented and discussed.

All papers and presentation as well as the final report are available on the EGM website on http://www.geom.unimelb.edu.au/research/SDI_research/EGM/

4 December 2005
Stig Enemark

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Conference delegates in a group picture.

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Skyline of the City of Melbourne.