‘Spatially enabled government’, ‘spatially
enabled society’, ‘spatially enabled’……
These are terms which we are hearing
more and more of these days. A society
or a government can be regarded as
spatially enabled when location and spatial
information are regarded as common
goods made available to citizens and
businesses to encourage creativity and
product development. Spatial enablement
uses the concept of place to organise
information and processes. Spatial
enablement and in particular, spatially
enabled government increasingly operates
in a virtual world. However, we still
have a long way to go. Spatially enabled
government is now part of the objectives
of countries in the Asia Pacific, Europe
and North America. The combination of
strategies in the spatial enablement of
government and mainstream e-Government
are now an emerging trend in Australia
and many other parts of the world.
With this background, this book aims
to contribute to the understanding of
spatial enablement, and address the
issues, challenges and requirements that
are involved. The book is dedicated to
Professor Ian Williamson, from Centre
for SDIs and Land administration,
The University of Melbourne to
showcase his contributions to teaching
and research in land administration
and SDI which formed some of the
foundations of spatial enablement.
Contributors are from UN agencies,
international professional associations,
Academia from Europe, Americas,
Asia and the Pacific and industry.
The book is divided into three parts.
The first two parts comprise a number
of chapters relating to the overall
theme, “Towards a Spatially Enabled
Society”, in two focus areas:
The next generation of Land
Administration System to support
sustainable development; and
SDI development to support a
spatially enabled society.
The final part contains information
reflecting on the career of
Prof Ian Williamson.
The editor is very grateful for the
cooperation and input of contributors
from these disciplines to the individual
chapters as well as to the overall theme
of the book. It is hoped that the book
achieves its objective in contributing
to understanding and addressing the
issues, challenges and requirements
surrounding the achievement of
a spatially enabled society.
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