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July 1998 -- Managing close to four million hectacres of public land has become easier for the staff of Parks Victoria, (Australia), following the success of a pilot project, which uses a spatial information management system from MapInfo Australia.

Called MapInfo SpatialWare, the technology allows Parks Victoria staff to store, manage and manipulate spatial data in the organisation's Oracle database system. Spatial data in this instance is digitised land boundaries, represented in the database as polygons and polylines.

Spatial information is used extensively throughout Parks Victoria to support a wide range of environmental and open space planning, and organisational processes. End-users such as park rangers access this information to assist them in making park management decisions.

Previously, data had been stored in a variety of electronic and paper formats making information access a time consuming task.

However, MapInfo's SpatialWare allowed Parks Victoria to combine map, (i.e. spatial), and core relational business data into a single Oracle database, allowing easy access and use of both types of data for the pilot project.

The 'strong-box' of spatial data, as it is referred to, was compiled for two trial areas - Grampians National Park and Plenty Gorge Park.

A purpose-built Park Information System drew on the spatial repository and provided end-users with the means to create and update their own maps around core business objectives.

The database also contained business information together with key environmental factors relating to national parks, public land, major waterways and metropolitan parks. "It was grouped into six core business management objectives," said Mr Chris Perry, Parks Victoria's Mapping Systems Manager.

Additionally, since the Park Information System had the MapInfo Professional desktop client linked to the SpatialWare server, it allowed park rangers in remote offices to create their own maps based on a standard set of queries. It also ensured Park Rangers could perform the updating of dynamic data sets on-site and these would automatically be updated to the corporate spatial server remotely.

As a result, users throughout Parks Victoria have easier access to mapping solutions that enjoy only current, accurate information.

"The beauty of the System is that park rangers and officers can also use it for an integrated mapping application which can access the SpatialWare data repository.

"It delivers a sample set of maps which show typical parks functions such as weed control and fire management as well as providing the functionality to enter information into the database.

"Furthermore, a sample set of reports which reflect analysis of the Parks Victoria data such as chronological fire history and pest plant management can also be produced," said Mr Perry.

The pilot project offered Parks Victoria potential benefits arising from the more efficient management of spatial data, producing cost savings and improved information distribution to end users. The establishment of this centrally managed database (the corporate mapbase) consolidates fundamental datasets specific to Parks Victoria's functions in managing environmental and recreational assets.

Through the Pilot Project, MapInfo's SpatialWare offered Parks Victoria all the required software components for a complete enterprise mapping architecture. Following its success, Parks Victoria has recently announced it will be rolling out MapInfo's SpatialWare solution across the whole enterprise.

According to Parks Victoria's Mr Perry, "It is an ideal solution for spatial information management that improves business decisions."

About MapInfo Australia Pty Ltd
MapInfo and Partners specialise in the development of Spatial Information Management Solutions (SIMS). SIMS describes a range of markets from desktop mapping to powerful GIS (Geographic Information Systems), to enterprise-wide deployment of spatial solutions for client/server environments.

MapInfo Australia is the regional vendor for S-E Asia and Australasia of MapInfo GIS software and data products. MapInfo Partners throughout the region provide solution integration, training and support services.

Whilst MapInfo Australia has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, it is also the regional hub for a network of over 50 Business Partners throughout South East Asia, New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific.

MapInfo Australia also maintains Australia's premier commercial library of (digitised) geographic and demographic data products for use with MapInfo software. These data products include topography for all of Australia, (including StreetInfo - detailed roads with address ranges), and boundary data products such as Census collection districts, postal boundaries, local government areas and suburbs.