MEDIA RELEASE
Parliamentary Secretary to the
Minister for Industry, Science and Resources
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MEDIA RELEASE |
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Warren Entsch, MP Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources |
Tuesday, 17 November 1998
Many of the world’s government decision-makers and foremost experts in geographic information systems, surveying, mapping and earth imaging are in Canberra this week for the Third Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Conference.
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, Warren Entsch, officially opened the Conference today.
"A GSDI will contribute significantly to international efforts in achieving sustainable development," Mr Entsch said.
The GSDI aims to standardise national and regional spatial data infrastructures to facilitate the transfer of information between nations.
"This is becoming more important with the increasing globalisation of industry and the move towards knowledge-based economies," Mr Entsch said. "It will also prove invaluable for addressing global environmental issues."
"The GSDI will guide land-use planning and help policy-makers conserve natural resources, and protect sensitive habitats and endangered species. It will also help predict climate change, for example, through monitoring the global rate of deforestation."
It is envisaged by the conference’s conclusion, a policy and organisational framework for a GSDI will have been developed, which will link national and regional spatial data infrastructures to form a global infrastructure.
Conference delegates will build on work undertaken at previous conferences in Bonn, Germany, and North Carolina, USA, developing the operational, institutional, political and technical strategies for spatial data infrastructures.
"It is fundamental we get the policies and framework for managing spatial data right if we are to share productively in the vast amounts of data now available," Mr Entsch said.
A spatial data infrastructure, like other types of infrastructure, is a substructure or underlying foundation supporting the economic and social facilities of a nation or a region.
The Australian Surveying and Land Information Group (AUSLIG) is organising the GSDI conference on behalf of the host, the Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific.
The conference was organised under the patronage of Commissioner Martin Bangemann of the European Union and Bruce Babbitt, US Secretary of the Interior.
Contact: Paul Everingham, Mr Entsch’s Office, 02 6277 4656 - Peter Holland, AUSLIG, 0412 620 132.